Photo by Cynthia Jean

By Cynthia Jean

Nashua

In circle of grapevine wreath

Trimmed in bittersweet

A gentle white dove

Bearing God’s peace and love

Sweet tidings of hope

For the New Year

•••

By Jeni Alden St. Laurent

Nashua

I was wrong

I held my hand open

hoped for a return

embraced a flickering flame

from a burning bridge

and I was wrong

an impact from a far place

reverberates in our gate city

tremors from war drums

beat with myopic fists

we watch, we listen, we read

this guttural rebuttal

that blindly and repeatedly

bludgeons our civil bones

to dust and apathy

a poisonous seed, is still poison

when it is wrapped in flags

when it is cloaked in misinformation

repeating a lie, does not make it true

repeating a lie, does not make it true

repeating a lie…

there is no civil war

there is war on civility