Magpie

By: Regina (Gina) PiroskaTurners Beach, Tasmania, Australia the magpiepostures on a sheep's backin tall wheat grassthe discarded red remainsof a…

A cloud of blackbirds

By Melissa DennisonBradford, Yorkshire, England I am standing with my pen poised to record but it's so quiet and still.…

Incantations

By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, NC, USA forestsburning far awayI bowto the wood thrushsinging orisons unseen I follow a path along…

Just This

By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, NC, USA I used to thinkit would last forever—the swallowscoming home each year,the green hills blossoming…

The Least of These

By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, NC, USA Hokusai painted them, Issa wrote about them, and Mao did his best to exterminate…

Murky Lake

By Theresa CancroWilmington, Delaware, USA murky lake . . .long tears cloudthe buffalo's eye

The Intruder

By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USAA glimpse of white wing bars, half hidden among juniper and honeysuckle. Uncertain, I…

All of Us

By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA all of usfrom blowfly to blue whalebirthright citizensof a dying planet . .…

Gas lit

By Melissa DennisonBradford, Yorkshire, England From boreal forests in the Arctic Circle to Hawaii and Malibu, every year more and…

Lipstick

By Florence HeyhoeCounty Down, Northern Ireland lipstick —the cosmetic trade flaying donkeys Further reading: End the Donkey Skin Trade

The Urge

By Rebecca DrouilhetPicayune, Mississippi, USA the urgeto flow beyond my banks . . .a drop of waterlonging to gowhere oceans…

Early Dusk

By John PappasBoston, Massachusetts, USA early dusk reaching into the warren winter’s chill

Late October

By: Steve Van AllenCincinnati, Ohio, USA, Earth global warming?a beautiful spring daylate October

The Blue Dot

By Bryan D. CookOrleans, Ontario, Canada Cloaked from earthling sight, two extraterrestrial fortune hunters gaze down at planet Earth. “Which…

Oriental Plane 

By Diana WebbLeatherhead, Surrey, UK It towers above the park this tree . An ancient haven with countless generations of…

Faint Aurora

By Theresa A. CancroWilmington, Delaware, USA faint aurora  . . .a polar bear clambersonto the shrinking floe

Crude

Theresa A. CancroWilmington, Delaware, USA unmixed oil slicks press against dolphin skin fall leaves…a plastic bag gapeswide as Texas First…

Broken Bottle

By Theresa A. CancroWilmington, Delaware, USA broken bottleat the end of the pathblue-eyed grass First published in Plum Tree Tavern, 2015