Poetry of Issue #4                        Page 30
Table of Contents	Another Venus Armless, headless, onyx weight shifts to the left foot the other leg bent at the knee a modest gesture shielding her love muscles belly and hips square over thick thighs pressed close, a ballast of strength her trunk dips to the left, almost a twist, a nod to a natural posture, a middle-aged sculpture but for the breasts so oddly at their prime.          Maria Lisella__	A Calling Small Catholic girls waited for it. Women wrapped in habits extolled it on a road show from school to school. They conjured up images of what it would be like to be a bride of Christ. It was all too confusing for young minds yet just mysterious enough to lure disciples.         Maria Lisella__ ©before the pyramides in Vi Vo Amsterdam by Corina T.v.M.	After supper the night curls Under the garden, Climbs walls Until our reflections Rise sharp, gaunt Above the candlelit table As day is removed To make space for now.         Maria Lisella__ _____________________________         Keeper of the Flame         Snatched by the storm clouds of war,         from unnatural kettles of black smoke         consuming the very ground         beneath them. Scratchy films,         newsreels interrupted by seconds         of silence as though this event         would drop out of sight forever.         Meticulous documentation preserves         the mythology of death for centuries,         for generations, for tourists.         A rake twitches, twigs snap,         I follow the sounds into the stark shadows         hanging over Remuh Cemetery at twilight.                 Maria Lisella__