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Open Mic Reading April 1 2026
Folder:
2026 Screeching Schedule
Screeching schedules across calendars, fastly
Burning up minutes by the hours, waiting
Patiently for the hurry-up mode-
To activate.
Banging her toe in a tapping motion, gazing
At the watch no longer worn, she wonders
If she strung them together well enough-
These times of down,
These times of,
Should-Be-Doing-Somethings.
Would they add up to the hill of beans
Your mother alluded to?
Or fracture into pieces
Inside the matrix
Of our living?
Hmm.
She
Thinks.
The Minnow Series:
I, II, III, IV
I. Spring: Minnow Leaves
The leaves flash
on the black asphalt
like stranded minnows
on the dock
spilled
from the fisherman’s pail
Small brown ellipse
dancing in the exhaust
of the cars passing.
Grey day of beginning
when the winter waste
gathers to be washed away
by the Spring rains
II. Summer Simmer Minnow
Where are they
They're gone!
Empty roadway beckons
the sun a beacon
To the beach
There, there
Just one caught
in the crack of concrete
Waiting, waiting
For the friends
of Fall
III. Fall Minnows
The leaves on the roadway
Bumping up against the barrier
Like puppies in a box
Tumbling and tossing
On the vortex of air
Fighting for their last chance
In the declining demise of the solstice
The air chilling
The nights creeping in on us
Sooner than we plan and anticipate
A surprise that it's that time again
The leaves a reminder
Of the close of the season
IV. Winter Minnows
There they are
the little last gasps
tumbling down the road
They seem confused
these last leaves of fall
It's winter now
and they bounce around
in the wake of the cars
Like the last creatures in the lake
before the drought
ends
Here there where
and then they're gone.
