July the 5th 2022

The world as I know it is definitely changing. The death of Queen Elizabeth will bring profound shifts to England, and here in the US the ground is altering beneath us, too.

July the 5th 2022

Fog lies outside my windows

and inside my mind.

Last night's firework's display

watched with delight.

But what were we celebrating?

A country stepping backwards

with removal of a basic right

affecting women?

The loosened liberty to clutch

an AR-15 with its specter of death?

The rulings of this Supreme Court

Session hound me like unwanted smog.

No matter how hard I try to see

clearly, it clings to my surroundings

and will not dissipate.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor

 

Mind the Specters

When I returned to London for a visit post-Covid, I noticed a change in the din produced while riding the Tube System. The good news was the noise abatement worked on the upper lines. The bad news being that it came at the expense of the lowest line.

Mind the Specters

Banshees haunt the deepest train lines

on London's Underground with flickering

lights and earsplitting complaints.

Layer upon layer of civilizations

agitated by mechanical worms now

grubbing the earth with passengers

across bone orchards long crumbled,

returned again to black dirt and dross.

Noise abatement on the upper lines

provokes deafening dins on the lowest.

175 feet down the ancients cry out anew.

The riders nettled, but carriage operators

hurtle on, sporting newly issued ear plugs.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor