Visions by Ereck Ndewere

The outlet opens a little

Against the copious flood

Stridently, I shout through the closing door

“Please help!”

The water level rises and rises, unabated

 “Help me, please help, I cannot open the door!”

My last lexis before I am swept off my feet

I breathe my last

Darkness!

Impenetrable darkness engulf me

Heart freezes, breathing stops

Eyes roll out as my feet become numb

Lights of the earth fade away

And my spirit bellows!

 “Is it beautiful out there?”

Riotous silence

Exit!

I leap over the Rubicon

Looking back

Pallbearers and mourners

Watch over my lifeless body,

As family, finances, pleasure

All the things I treasured

I have left behind

Reflections of  heaven and the angels

Bright orange lights do allure me.

What about hell,

The place reserved for evil doers?

Impregnable luminosity!

Drawn to it like a magnet

In manifestations of life and death

Miss Carol's Dumplings by Donal Mahoney

Every month or so

on a Sunday afternoon

I skip the football game

and get in my truck

and drive out from the city

into farm country

to visit Miss Carol

and get my hands

on her plump dumplings.

Biggest I've ever seen.

Best I've ever had,

terrific with her

legs and thighs.

When she lays out 

her chicken dinner  

on that white tablecloth

I start drooling before

I even get a hand on it.

A farm girl, she says 

she's never met 

a man like me

so nuts am I

about her dumplings.

Usually, she says,

men like breast meat,

when it's moist,

and I allow how I

like that as well

but not as much 

as her plump dumplings

on a Sunday afternoon

and her pluperfect

legs and thighs