Contributor: Bruce Levine

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Pristine snow
Reflecting light
In pools of shadows
Radiating images
Of bygone times
Centuries old
Floating hemispheres
Suspended in time
Like cave paintings
And orange marmalade
Frozen by the cold
That melts like
Pristine snow


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Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay His nearly one-hundred-fifty works are published in magazines, over twenty-five on-line journals, thirty books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
My life is a wire
Forced upon me
Not by choice
Not by desire
But by obsolescence
Of former technology
No longer viable
No longer available
And yet it too
Had its own lifespan
Before the next technological epiphany
Superseded it –
Out with the old – in with the new
Armageddon

And is my life better?
Categorically no!

Simple became complex
Reliable became subject
To the whims of technology
The internet’s slow today
The program’s out of date
The compatibility declined
The system’s down
Functionality at a standstill
Armageddon

Go wireless
Go Bluetooth
Go further down
The layers of Hell
The layers of the Inferno
The labyrinth
Of keeping up
With the newest of the new
Keeping up with the Joneses
No longer humans
Keeping up with Microsoft or Apple

Pre-order
Post-order
Out of order

Spending money
On the gift that keeps giving
In the name of technology
The rich get richer
And everyone else poorer
Waiting in line
Camping on the sidewalk
All for the gadgets
All for the glory
Of holding the latest update

As I suffer
Their hypocrisy
Their purported need
To make the world better
Faster
Easier
Save the trees
Repair climate change
More and more technology
Force it on us
Like the slaves
Forced on the ships
Out of Africa

No more human interaction
Text me…
No more time
Social media…
Games
Addiction to technology
Armageddon


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay His nearly one-hundred-fifty works are published in magazines, over twenty-five on-line journals, thirty books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
Chasing a rainbow
through a field of dreams
Holding the tail of a kite
as it floats to the top of the mountain
Piling up choices into mounds
of vanilla frosting
Holding forever moments in the
palm of your hand

Revising the past into the
hope of tomorrow
Time that seemed frozen
reawakening now
Pages and pages set
down in a journal
Defining the future
growing out of the past

A novel – a story
a tale told out of context
A time not forgotten
a wrong not resolved
With an eye on the future
moving on with the tide
Like the Gulf Stream through sorrow
shifting course once again

Arriving at the goal post
moved each time in the shadows
Out of reach and beyond longing
held by fate out of sync
As choices surround moments
encompassing pastures
For the grazing of cattle
and for opening doors

The time that seemed lost
on the pages of yesterday
No longer slumber on a shelf
high above
Out of reach yet not forgotten
with the help of a partner
Dusted off with a dust rag
climbing mountains of success


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Bruce Levine, a 2019 Pushcart Prize Poetry Nominee, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay. Over three hundred of his works are published in over twenty-five on-line journals including Ariel Chart, Friday Flash Fiction, Literally Stories; over thirty print books including Poetry Quarterly, Haiku Journal, Dual Coast Magazine, and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His six eBooks are available from Amazon.com. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
Empty laughter
Often fading
Among the trees
Of the nether-fold
Nirvana forsaken
Amidst the storm
Of the infinite
Paradoxical anagrams
Representing the
Vortex of time
Leaving in isolation
The magnitude
Unfulfilled
By a destiny removed
Renamed yet unknown
As a symbol
A metaphor
Held in an ironic
Twist of fate
Longing for the impossible
Parodies etched in paradiddles
Refocused without rhyme
Now forsaken
Amid the Pine Barrens
Of time


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay His nearly one-hundred-fifty works are published in magazines, over twenty-five on-line journals, thirty books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
(for my friends in Santaland)

Prisoners of runaway elves
Hostages in Santaland
Christmas recapitulation

Drowning in Christmas cheer
Overdose of red and green
No more speculation

Halloween forgotten
Witches transformed to Santas
North Pole evacuation

Fifth Avenue parade
Start of the Christmas season
Without equivocation

Life-sized candy canes
Like gaggles of geese
Marching in toy formation

All for girls and boys
Good or bad – naughty or nice
During school vacation

Happiness abounds
Festive days and twinkling nights
After hour rumination

Santa in his sleigh
Annual round on Christmas Eve
World-wide culmination

Milk and cookie trays
Left for Santa
Children’s hopes and expectation

Toys and party games
Festive food and Christmas carols
Brightly colored tree sensation
Christmas realized
Spinning threads of joy and laughter
Happiness without hesitation

Annual reward
For all good boys and girls
Without fear or consternation

Children in their beds
Dreaming dreams remembered
Christmas season invitation


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, magazine articles and a screenplay His works are published in over twenty-five on-line journals, over twenty-five books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
Heaven remembers
The fortitude
Wrought in time
That outlasts infinity
And gives strength
Through the simplest emotions
Guiding the pathways
Through forests primeval
Or oceans outlasting
The desert refined
By sand dunes of mem’ries
To hold and remember
Uncertain of context
But travel in light-years
And journeys forgotten
Remembered
Defined
By new journeys taken
And new hope abounding
The future forgiving
New moments sublime


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay His nearly one-hundred-fifty works are published in magazines, over twenty-five on-line journals, thirty books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
The pale sky shown against
The purple linings of clouds
New formations emanating from the
Atmosphere of indeterminacy

Striated visions of light
Reflecting off pools of stagnant water
Held fast as if bent by a quartz crystal
Polished by years of buffeting wind

Ozone filtered air after a lightning storm
Relieving the stench of humidity
Festering through a nightmare
Of unspoken platitudes of speech

Golden arrows recovered from a quiver
Soaked by the rainstorms of earlier times
Narrow boundaries of earthen promontories
Holding the future in a Pyrex dish

Filling the motions of another dimension
Answering questions no longer defined

Harbingers of starlight pointing through shadows
Final evasion of an earlier rhyme
Lasting forever in an atomic incubator
Opening doorways of an earlier kind

Lightyears of travel to another dimension
Lingering entries in the journal of time
Forecast impression resolving the query
Hologram beings the last of mankind


- - -
Bruce Levine, a 2019 Pushcart Prize Poetry Nominee, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay. Nearly one-hundred-fifty of his works are published in over twenty-five on-line journals including Ariel Chart, Friday Flash Fiction, Literally Stories; over thirty print books including Poetry Quarterly, Haiku Journal, Dual Coast Magazine, and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His six eBooks are available from Amazon.com. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
A cold winter night
Bare trees against
A starless sky
A cold chill
Permeates the air
A residual of rain
Deer scamper
At a human approach
Streetlights reflect
On glossy pavement
A quiet time
A cold winter night


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay His nearly one-hundred-fifty works are published in magazines, over twenty-five on-line journals, thirty books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
The last ember of solitude
Racks my brain
The frozen stillness
As I walk my dog
In the frigid hour after midnight
At the end of January
Days pass with unearthly speed
As time enfolds the lovers
In its embrace
And light the way across the crevasse
Of uncertainty
Leading the way
Holding hands
Never-ending ribbons of golden thread
Wrapped in the silent clothes of ecstasy
As the frantic pace of civilization
Consumes the hours
Leaving only the last embers
To warm the souls
Of those who remember
Those who hold dear
A time when daydreams met reality
That lasted into eternity


- - -
Bruce Levine, a 2019 Pushcart Prize Poetry Nominee, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay. Nearly one-hundred-fifty of his works are published in over twenty-five on-line journals including Ariel Chart, Friday Flash Fiction, Literally Stories; over thirty print books including Poetry Quarterly, Haiku Journal, Dual Coast Magazine, and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His seven eBooks are available from Amazon.com. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
A special day
A wondrous day
A profound day
A day filled with happy moments
Of hope for the future
A day filled with sadness
And reflections of the past
Opening a window
Turning the key in the lock
That closes the door
And opens on the other side
Of the ocean
A chasm crossed physically
And metaphorically
A lifetime ahead
Filled with hope and dreams
Love and laughter
A special day
A wondrous day
A profound day


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, magazine articles and a screenplay His works are published in over twenty-five on-line journals, over twenty-five books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin, and his wife Jane. He lives in New York with Jane and their dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
Wind blowing the trees –
Waiting

Rain pelting the roofs –
Waiting

Warnings – fear – panic –
Waiting

False alarms and near death situations –
Waiting

Tree limbs, branches and twigs
Scatter the lawn now
Tearing asunder
A long standing dream

Follow the plan – follow the leader
Running to safety or so they believe
Storing up water – storing up food-stuffs
Counting the days they’ll all do without

Fixing the time, it can’t last forever
Praying they’ll all see the very next dawn
Watching the wind – moments of calmness
Gusts overtaking those moments of ease

Clouds overhead as dark as the night now
Following shadows cast off on their own
Ev’ryday fears amplified grandly
Leaving all thought and reason behind

Lightning and thunder – power lines bursting
Freezing the time in a moment of light
Tracing the tempest with photograph mem’ry
Timelines projecting the hurricane path

Watching the day creeping by slowly
Hours of watching and waiting to come
Watching a squirrel scamper up tree limbs
Looking for shelter from the eye of the storm


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay His nearly one-hundred-fifty works are published in magazines, over twenty-five on-line journals, thirty books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
Living in an alternate universe
Ignoring pop culture
By choice
Searching and seeking another reality
Another voice
Unaware of mainstream hyperbole
Disdaining ideology
Disavowing hypocrisy
Technology
Longing for another era
Through socio-anthropology
Fearing the fate of society
Civilization
The human condition
And the disappearance
Of humanity
Portable souls in cell phones
Replacing perception
The golden age of the written word
Reduced to a hundred and forty characters
Life condensed to a text message
Social interaction forsaken
For a higher score of tech magic
Leaving the alternate universe
The only hope
Of sanity


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay His nearly one-hundred-fifty works are published in magazines, over twenty-five on-line journals, thirty books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
The river of time
Flows through the essence
Of human existence
Forging canyons in the soul

Following a path
Of its own creation
Leaving silt in its wake
Stones along the shore

Rapids interrupt
Its meandering migration
As the current overtakes
Rocks scattered in the bed

Casting spray on daydreams
Leaving empty holes
Where the future
Would have been

The river holds the mem’ries
Of sailors long since gone
Waiting for new entries
Dragged against their will

Shadows from the trees
Quiver in the wind
Darkening the river’s path
Where sunshine should have been

Shallow pools created
As the river branches off
An oasis holding time
That the current ignored

Skipping stones on the surface
Thrown by people on the shore
Setting off vibrations
Concentric circles spreading out

Fastening forever
As the ripples disappear
Time alone remembers
The river that flows along

Leaving empty caverns
Cut in solid stone
That once had happy endings
Before the ebb and flow


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay His nearly one-hundred-fifty works are published in magazines, over twenty-five on-line journals, thirty books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
I noted one day
The dearth of any Blue Jay
To come within my view
Nor Cardinals
That astonishing bird
Covered in a regal hue

Then as I watched
A Blue Jay came in sight
And landed on my balcony railing
For seconds few
And then it flew
Off without any warning

As it flew away
I did proclaim
Astonished as I was
As if on cue
Several more did fly near
More Blue Jays did appear

And then I asked
For a Cardinal to alight
One came directly into sight
And landed on the rail
But in seconds it did regale
Into lofty flight

I’ve been told with those red wings
A Cardinal is an angel
So when I asked to see that bird
My simple request seems to have been heard

Now I watch
For Blue Jays and for Cardinals
To come within my view
Each day I hope
The dearth be gone
And an angel comes anew


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay. Nearly one-hundred-fifty of his works are published in over twenty-five on-line journals including Ariel Chart, Literally Stories, Visitant, Foliate Oak Magazine; over thirty print books including Poetry Quarterly, Mused Literary Review, Dual Coast Magazine, and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His seven eBooks are available from Amazon.com. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
The black lace of winter
Permeates the view
Barren trees at sunset
A panoply of sorrow
Recounted in a single verse
Monopolizing thoughts
That once were golden
Filled with brightly colored hues
A rainbow of mem’ries
Now erased by shadows
Encased in a shroud
Questions not yet answered
Yet terminating the sunrise
In a recurring pattern
Drifting on inexplicably
And only time can reveal
The future


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional and is published on and in numerous internet and print journals. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
Blistering weather withers
As cooler climes take over
Reflecting
Revealing the emptiness that surrounds
Pervading the hollowness that echoes
Like an empty cavern
Floating through a ravine of longing
Waiting
For the improvements that signal
Recuperation
Regaining the equanimity
Of our own circle of life
Holding fast to passions and fancies
Foibles and follies
Hopes and dreams
Fears and failures
Following the road to the precipice
Onward
Holding hands
Always reaching for the next plateau
Always seeking the unanswered question
And laughing
To cover up the unknown
The sham laughter of sorrow
To hide the tears
That flow too readily for propriety
Yet shrink with hope
Fleeting
And rise again
On a roller-coaster of fate


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional and is published on and in numerous internet and print journals. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
(for Lydia on an anniversary)

A half-dozen Little Necks
Clams on the half shell
Whetting the appetite
Eaten raw
A squeeze of lemon
And cocktail sauce
A perfect respite

Afternoon snack
With a bowl of clam chowder
Or a prelude to an entrée
Like trout almandine
With crabmeat stuffing
An ideal combination
For dinner any day

Supper after theatre
A lovely aperitif
With after theatre talk
A half-dozen Little-Necks
And a seafood soufflé
Impeccable repast
Before a homeward walk


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional and is published on and in numerous internet and print journals. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
The trees go from bare, barren branches
Agonizingly bursting with buds
That become leaves in their palest shade
Reaching for the sun and darkening in color
Time to reach their fullness of life

At home in New York
Time to breathe the energy
That only New York air carries in its wake
Time to let the New York rhythms transfuse
Transform
Reshape itself
As a prelude evolves into a symphony

At home in New York
Where ideas float in the air
Like grains of sand in the Sahara
Waiting to germinate
Waiting to be gathered
Cross pollinated
And become grand arches of infinite rainbows

Glass and steel rising
With sculptural ferocity
Like Jack’s beanstalk
Towering into the sky
Reaching for the golden egg
Transformed into an apple
To be plucked from the tree of life
That only New York can succor

Electro-magnetic
Drawing toward itself
Like the moon controls the tides
And returning to the atmosphere
Like solar flares
Volcanic yet enigmatic
Waiting to be recaptured
Waiting to be nurtured into being


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay His nearly one-hundred-fifty works are published in magazines, over twenty-five on-line journals, thirty books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
The kangaroos are jumping over hill and over dale
The leprechauns are leaping through fields forever pale
The spectrum of the mermaids is growing by the day
And happy ever after is one more day away

The unicorns are dancing to gigues of their own devise
The ancient mariner speaking in rhymes that once surprise
Pegasus parading ‘round clouds of soft ice cream
And never ending stories are more than just a dream


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, articles and a screenplay His nearly one-hundred-fifty works are published in magazines, over twenty-five on-line journals, thirty books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy.

Contributor: Bruce Levine

- -
My dream of academia
Is an idealized one
Mr. Chips and the Paper Chase
Classes of five hundred
In lecture halls the size of stadiums
Students focused
Totally absorbed
Hands flying skyward
With thoughts, questions
And answers
Always thinking
Always searching
Always seeking the challenge
Digesting facts and adding knowledge
Connecting dots from places obscure
Yet always looking for hidden meanings
Layers and levels and subtexts
That clarifies cognition
And opens the portal
Of the enigma unknown


- - -
Bruce Levine, a native Manhattanite, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional. His literary catalogue includes four novels, short stories, humorous sketches, flash fiction, poetry, essays, magazine articles and a screenplay His works are published in over twenty-five on-line journals, thirty books and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. He lives in New York with his dog, Daisy. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com.