MARYANN HAZEN-STEARNS
Impedimenta

     There is nothing left to feel.
His genitalia have dried.
Blown from the nest overnight.
A lapse of impetus, nothing left
to defend yet there it is.

Spit and jizz propaganda,
     useless erotic pantomime.

His hunger swells
but the dead thing
remains hollow; impassive.

Magnified by angry realization,
frustration sputters in the tender vernacular 
of manhood; it's her fault the slut she's
a pig a whore take a fist to her jaw 
still there's nothing left to feel.
His genitalia have died.

DYAN SANDEFER
Ashamed

Places 
in my home town
I will not go. People
there are frightening, different
from me.

Some stare
with vacant eyes,
hungry, never having
enough to fully fill empty
bellies.

Needy,
homeless, the poor,
the addicted, disturb
my sense of peace. I want better
for them.

Who cares 
for them? Who sees
these unfortunate souls
whose lives are a bitter struggle?
Do you?

Some look 
and never see.
They are busy counting
their blessings, ignoring those who
have none.

Me? I
live afraid to
get my hands dirty, too
scared to touch the unclean, I am
ashamed.