FOUR FEATHERS PRESS ONLINE EDITION: POINTS AND LINES Send up to three poems on the subject of or at least mentioning the words point and/or line, totaling up to 150 lines in length, in the body of an email message or attached in a Word file to donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59 PM PST on November 17th. No PDF's please. Color artwork is also desired. Please send in JPG form. No late submissions accepted. Poets and artists published in Four Feathers Press Online Edition: Points and Lines will be published online and will be invited to read at the Saturday Afternoon Poetry Zoom meeting on Saturday, November 18th between 3 and 5 pm PST.

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Jeffry Jensen


Pointing Across the Imaginary Lines of Extinction


A mother came to the library in search of a third-grade dinosaur book.

I told her that I should take long meander

off a short dizzy emptiness before the stroke of midnight.

This is not what she wanted to hear.

How is this related to her question about a dinosaur book?

Maybe,it was just a mood thing that I could not shake at that moment.

In the future, I will be more cautious about blurting out random brain farts.

For all of my tumbleweed sweetness, I should definitely know better.

I do not have the lungs of an expert diver, so I must stay on dry land.

I must be careful on how I moderate my breath in front of the public.

Last night, I could feel the soft touch of a pallbearer wishing

to carry me away as I slept in my borrowed bed of joy.

No good turn seems to go unpunished by the inhaled nature of bereavement.

The love of a good mother can keep a child or dinosaur book warm and fuzzy.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and my community cats

have been talking about doing a turkey potluck sort of thing with me

as security against all the undesirable critters

that are famous for crashing Holiday gatherings in the neighborhood.

At this time, I must turn my attention to the next desperate mother

standing in front of me at the library reference desk.

As I bite my bottom lip, I take a purposeful stroll toward

all the man-in-the-moon books that have been showing up on our shelves.


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