Author: Jane Patten

Message in a Bottle

First a note: A sestina has six, usually unrhymed, stanzas followed by a stanza of three lines. It’s has the same end words, or form of the words, throughout, in a specific order for each stanza. The last stanza contains all six words, again in a specific order. In this case the words are waste, bottles, …

Apologist

Modest Munich By virtue of geography and a madman, The wrong place at the wrong time, Is apologetic and ashamed So much so that past symbols are verboten And attempts to rectify wrongs Are offered with the recognition That it will be despised and mistrusted Again and again. So it revels in Bavarian traditions And countrified …

Emergency Room

Date: 10/11/08 Doctor: Host Nurse: Smith Tech: Richard We are concerned about you. Thank you for choosing us For your care; The only hospital in a 40 mile radius With the only room where Smith can Steal glimpses at the Georgia vs. Tennessee game on TV, Where the Holy Host can roll her eyes When the …

Dream Travel

El Paso, A city I have never seen Until last night In a dream. It welcomed me With swirling light And dancing color And told me I belonged – For here there would be forever love And I hugged and I hugged This city that loved me Sight unseen, It seemed. Then my mother Stood beside …

Old Dog

Old Dog was published in Out Loud: A Year in Review 2017. My daddy said The dog was dead When we hadn’t seen her for days “A dog just knows It’s time to go and aloneness is what it craves.” I could have hugged her And held her close and whispered in her ear “Please don’t …