New Poetry: Something Old - Something New

Something old, something​ new. We've four poets for you today – two (Herb Kauderer & Ken Poyner) are regular Grievous Angel contributors, while the other two (Lauren McBride & Mary Soon Lee) make their Angel debut.


Mystery Guest
by Lauren McBride

Despite misshapen form and feet,
and zombie-colored skin,
Dracula reddened lips
frozen in a grin –
it's standing now beside us.
So who let the clown in?

note to future self:
by Lauren McBride

when the odiferous, oozing                                           
alien blob
asks to become blood brothers –
say yes
 

* Lauren McBride finds inspiration in faith, nature and science. She shares a love of laughter and the ocean with her husband and two grown children.


The Decisions of Robots
by Herb Kauderer 
 
I worked with industrial robots
which the company defined as
machines that made decisions
and acted on them
without human input.
 
One day in my industrial boredom
I wondered to myself:
If a robot makes a decision
and nobody cares
is he really a robot?
 
What would Heisenberg say?
 
And what of the corollary?
In twenty years in industry
nobody ever cared about a decision
I made. But I am not a robot.

I’m an escapee.


* Herb Kauderer is an associate professor of English at Hilbert College and holds an MFA in creative writing.  Details are available at www.HerbKauderer.com


New Planet Landscape 25
by Ken Poyner

We take their words literally,
Loading them into the bin that a week’s worth
Of dehydrated water used to be stored in.
They do not regard this as improper, and, in fact,
Consider it so much an honor
That they make more words.  They describe
Their culture and inter-relations, how
The various species of this place
Each makes a whole in the biosphere;
How all depend upon each other,
Except a few.  They tell us their individual
Stories and educate us on what it is
To be one of them, a part of the process,
A rise or fall in the great sounding wave
Of their ruinous future.  We nod and look
Appropriately down, our attention narrowed
To a point, our fingers ready
To catch each word as it forms.  We
Are going to need another bin.


* Of late Norfolk (VA)-based Ken Poyner has had poetry published in Analog, Asimov’s, Star*Line, Abyss and Apex, and several other places. His most recent collection is Constant Animals, 42 unruly fictionsavailable in paperback and ebook via www.kpoyner.com


Messengers
by Mary Soon Lee

No herald, no envoy, no messenger of state.
A girl of thirteen, her boots too small,
running and walking, walking and running
to the enemy's gate, shouting Open. Help.

A fisherman, the first back that night,
returning to where his town used to be,
then rowing for the border, for the enemy port,
shouting Help. Demon. Fire. Mercy. Help.


* Mary Soon Lee grew up in London but now lives in Pittsburgh. She won the 2014 Rhysling Award for best long poem for Interregnum.