Contributor: Steve Isaak

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“Why do you shred
your early story versions?”
she asks.

I shake my head,
because I can’t explain
how I’m destroying
past selves,
some better, most not,
and decades,
when I, explosive,
squandered opportunities
& hearts.

Time was kinder,
more abundant, then,
not a returning magpie flock,
each flesh-gouging beak
a fast-passing day,
each wing flap an echo breeze
of Winter’s gelid breath,
while I write, edit,
try to be better,
do more
for her, she who balanced me.


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Steve Isaak, a.k.a. Nikki Isaak and Chuck Lovepoe, is the author of several poetry anthologies.