Our poets have some especially poignant verses on timely topics, as we close out the year. We thank Madlyn Epstein Steinhart, Nicole Freezer Ruben, Carol Ostrow, Stephanie Sloane, and Marjorie Levine, for their wonderful contributions this year with verses that have made us think, made us pause, and sometimes made us laugh. Here’s to the poets.

Take To The Streets

The streets have a voice.

Cries bounce off the cold cement

and echo from sign to sign.

Hatred is tenderly taped up and cruelly ripped down

from the modern-day lampposts and traffic lights.

The hostages are with us

on every corner,

in one dimension,

framed in blood red

and holding on for dear life with tape.

I walk with a roll of clear 3M packing tape

like a concealed weapon

in my purse,

to right the wrongs

of the half-ripped posters.

I am jousting with

red, green, black and white stickers of loathing

stuck on poles.

In contrast there is a sea

of flag-blue ribbons

tied tightly around the trees

surrounding the elegant Christmas balsam firs,

erected annually on Park Avenue.

A sacred few hostages

have been released.

Images of children reuniting with family

flood my screens

and their posters can be gently taken down.

Please please let them all be let go

before someone angrily

unties the flowing ribbons

blowing in the cool wind

world over,

and we all run out of tape.

~Nicole Freezer Rubens, author “The Long Pause and the Short Breath”

Decision Decisions!

Great people don’t always think things out,

They may not have money nor any clout,

But they do go forward and will discover,

A new adventure, perhaps even a lover!

We know the untried road is really scary,

A wrong decision can get rather hairy,

Who cares if you fail, at least you’ve tried,

The truth, to confess, I’ve screamed and cried,

Why am I doing this,  and in retrospect,

I’m glad I did it with absolutely no regret,

So what, I say, pushing forward this idea,

What the hell, learning to live with constant fear,

Sometimes that works and sometimes it won’t,

I’ll never know if I stop and don’t,

Move forward. You know what I mean!!!!

~Carol Ostrow, author “Poems from My Pandemic Pen”

What’s Left

light blue to dark blue

the curtain fell on water

rocks remained so strong

In The Night Sky Above the City Avenue

The moon high above

One star below on the left

Both move and shine bright

Waxing Crescent

Illuminated

In a shiny blue night sky

Twigs tremble and freeze

~ Marjorie J. Levine, author of “Road Trips” and soon to be released, “Becoming Until”

What We Want/What We Have

We may have figured out

This complex life

We’re dating again

With an occasional overnight

I’m now the girlfriend

Who goes out to dinner

And receives the occasional gift

Which is all I ever wanted

~Stephanie Sloane, author “Dear Me”

Rosalyn Carter

The woman is a blessing
The forever kind
Changed lives and lived every day as an inspiration to us all
A Storybook Love and Life
To Honor she isn’t enough
She would not want that anyway
Your politics and ideas don’t matter here
What she accomplished still grows and helps many
What matters is that we say farewell to this amazing human being
We should strive to be as kind and incredible as she was
To say the mold was broken is not enough but she was so much more than enough
She more than cared she did something with it and about it

~Madlyn Epstein Steinhart, author “Put on Your Boots and Dance in the Rain” and “Beautiful Heart”