All That Glitter by Lynn White

Photograph by Quincemedia from Pixabay

First published in ‘All That Glitters’, Silver Apples, Issue 10, 2018

It glitters
like gold.
But is it
gold
or base
metal
being worked on
by an alchemist..
undergoing
transformation,
perhaps
with a touch
of magic,
with an elixir
of immortality,
an illusion.
Or perhaps
base oil
transformed
to
sparkly
plastic glitter
with
all too real
immortality.
Glittering,
littering
with
everlasting life,
all that glitter.

*****

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud 'War Poetry for Today' competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Rhysling Award. Find Lynn at: https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com and https://www.facebook.com/Lynn-White-Poetry-1603675983213077/

The Janitor’s Art by Danny Barbare

Mop & Bucket by Phil Parker from Flickr

Whether
a
broom
or
mop

as
this
is
it

a
work
of
art.

Sunday Afternoon by DS Maolalai

Goldfish by John O'Sullivan from Flickr

and all day
music plays
and all day there are poems
and all
day, light
through the blinds
striking like piano keys,
brash and loud as crockery dropping.

sometimes you feel like a goldfish,
satisfied in its bowl,
boxed off from unnecessary strife.
gods with red wings rise on horizons
and scorch the earth
red in search of prayer,
people go mad in the streets and rant about angels,
death and everything in the next century,
all outside,
all very much
away -

sometimes you just lie in bed
scratch your belly
and eat cheese crackers.

*****

DS Maolalai has been nominated for Best of the Web and twice for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry has been released in two collections, Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden (Encircle Press, 2016) and Sad Havoc Among the Birds (Turas Press, 2019)