Flying Island

Ponderings by Bonita Cox Searle   Ghosts sleep in ponds And rise up in early morning To haunt geese. When fish think they are alone, They dance on the surface Of the pond. Herons make no noise When they catch fish Dancing. An unloved pond Chokes on algae And raises mosquitoes. A loved pond Feeds its guests And invites them back. Old man pond frogs Snore When they are awake. When living on a pond, Ducks and geese practice A separate But equal philosophy. Ponds are as moody as the sea. Autumn leaves fall To the pond’s surface To dance with fish. Muskrats sashay back And forth past Dancing fish on the pond. When a pond freezes, The fish stop dancing and Fall asleep. Herons eat elsewhere. A pond does not know It is a pond. Bio: Bonita Cox Searle lives in Noblesville, Ind.,where she writes poetry and short stories. She is working on a novel. Her work has appeared in the Polk Street Rev...

I Am Fat with poems unwritten. They came uninvited and bred like rabbits. They clogged my heart and smothered my throat. They impacted my gut— it no longer worked. They crammed my hippo thighs until I became an elephant. Elephants don’t write. My pachyderma expanded and expanded and expanded until it cracked and words seeped out— One thin poem at a time. Bio: Bonita Cox Searle lives in Noblesville, Indiana, where she writes poetry, short stories, memoir, and mystery novels. Her first published story, "Murder on Potter's Bridge," won The First Annual Armchair Detective Story Contest sponsored by the Polk Street Review. It will appear in the 2014 fall issue.