Door by Neil Ellman

Door by Philip Guston © The Estate of Philip Guston

Through one side
a space without an end
through the other
an endless space
exit or entrance
here there the same
as it ever was
a door is little more
than a passageway
between the opposites
of oneself the universe
at odds
although identical
going nowhere
and everywhere
with the swing
of a rusty gate.

Neil Ellman, a poet from New Jersey, has published close to 1,200 poems in print and online journals, anthologies and chapbooks throughout the world.  He has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and twice for Best of the Net.

Men at Watering by Tom Sheehan

Men at watering divine
the pulse in it, douse petals
much as root work, believe
them cleaner, deserving.

In hill shanks, between
other’s houses, as August
suns filter down, these men
let go, how thick hawsers

unwind in naval dusk.
Often they train harshly
on leaf, stubborn blade,
and lose the water’s act.

They stare at that fighting
back. When twilit cars
pass in salute, slowed by
evening’s deed, watering

men fix where water empties
itself, at earth-damp,
at the heeded and awful
promise of return.