The July Chosen Poet is Denny E. Marshall

Please feel free to email Denny at:

wtdwg@hotmail.com

LAND OF A MILLION GHOSTS

Long before Salem witches
Ghosts roamed the Great Plains
Natives respect dark shadows
No battles at stroke of midnight

Fields of a thousand voices
Hide behind rows of darkness
Stories ride fertile valleys
Whisper across dusty trails

In sparse conditions
Spirits occupy all corners
Footprints call like thunderstorms
Voices from void scream on the range

Each blade of corn and grass
Transforms in moonlit sky
Those who find a signal
Silent and scared to death

Every year more arrive
From crowed graves and cities
Lost roaming herds grown larger
In great Midwest gathering

EYE TO EYE

You and creature
See eye-to-eye
For first time
You from good eye
Creature
Seeing the one
It’s eating

TWO TANKA

captain on sea ship
travels familiar voyage
friends and family
no clue he’s dumping bodies
from above Challenger Deep

engine stalls midair
falling straight down toward land
know your family
will have nothing to bury
as you crash on mars

YOUNG CHILD STORY

Young child so happy
Tomorrow moving to place
Many miles away

Parents bought new house
Now will be rid of monsters
Underneath the bed

Father and mother 
Help carry boxes to room
Unpack afterwards

First night in many
Able to sleep restfully
With head uncovered

Monday after school
Sees large present on table
Hoping toys inside

Later that evening
Father carries to child’s room
Smiles said, “Thank you Dad.”

Downstairs his parents
Wonder what’s inside the box
Delivered today

Curious about
Capital M on bottom
Upstairs hear surprise

Denny E. Marshall has had art, poetry, and fiction published. Recent credits include cover art for Bards And Sages Quarterly Jan. 2017 and poetry in Space And Time #126 Winter 2016. His flash fiction story “The Window” was published by Sci Phi Journal and is on the Tangent Online 2016 Recommended Reading List, a review magazine for short SF & fantasy.

See more at www.dennymarshall.com.