Andrew Bambrick

Slow Start Thin white streaks cut across the black sky, Gradually plum and rose clouds appear. The golden dawn shines. THis is the retiree's alarm clock. It's movement time. Bits of dream fragments float by Coffee brewing Pregnant silence Hope awakened. Screen on. Chatter rustles in. Reflection gives way To active dismay.

Editor's note: May is Mental Health Month. Catching Shadows Try catching shadows a child's game. Thrilling and exhausting. Impossible to outrun our shadows. Their appearance and disappearance A bit scary. They can be seen but unable to touch. Unwanted companions are they. Adult shadows feel palpable. Fear, anger, rage,...

Changing Portable Tools Lift on high the portable idol, Our sacred co-traveler, the iPhone. Idol entry gained By a tap, slide, access code. The invisible becomes visible. Seduction guaranteed. Distraction expected. Life membership painless. Attraction and adoration for non-living object embarrassing. Escape thoughts socially disloyal. The portable idol morphed into...

The Braided Bread The braided bread Sustained us across the sea And kept the stories of our old ways alive. This Christmas Eve We gather and knead The hopes, promises and forgiven failures Into the braided bread. Our family history baked into the bread. The telling and retelling...

Pandora's Jar The signal given. Midterm hostilities commence. Plagues flutter and descend, Rising from the open Pandora's jar. Civility is the first to leave. Envy, spite and revenge follow. Each plague coated with The smell of singed hair and mud, Burned and thrown by Self-made political celebrities Thoroughly blinded by...

Salt Lick Pleasures The salt lick is a deer's pleasure. With head bobbing in mindless repetition They continue until satiety. Opioid heads bobbing in mindless repetition Continue without satiety. Narcan shots give brief resurrection. Their sudden blue-sky optimism, hasty promises and cobbled dreams Adhere to "vital lies"...

Blood Bath Within the coming months an avalanche of "pick me" Political ads will fill the digital world. Parties and candidates will equate passion with truth. In heated debates reason will become disengaged. Protesters with clenched fist, raised still arm, Unbowed head and strident pace...

"Buy Me" ads activate our susceptible genes. Happy talk merchants are anxious To furnish us with products Designed to break the chains Of our discomfort and pain. From the research lab to our front door Relief with Mercury speed guaranteed. Pain-free faces happy and content Dominate the...

"D" Day Cycle More prolific than dust bunnies Under the bed. Items once memory filled Now face ejection. Parting with them inevitable. Final touching and farewells Necessary for a ritual release. Curb pickup boxes await their final transport. Losses shortly lived. New items destined to become Moments of nostalgia. Another decluttering...

Leaf Peepers Time Once the luminescent leaves appear on trees The leaf peepers are smitten. Pint-sized knee huggers squeal with joy. Their tiny feet trudge through the newest layers of leaves. Traffic slows to a crawl in towns and on rural roads. Gawkers witness nature's...