Leland James | FIG LEAVES

FIG LEAVES In our doing and undoing, in our designs, the nakedness we try to hide: the corpse beneath the sheet laid out upon a stainless table. Plainly there, plainly. But we go on in our intricate designs. The clink of glasses, a swirl of opulence upon a porcelain plate, the tasteful tie and jacket, […]

Leland James | THE TRUTH HUNTERS

THE TRUTH HUNTERS Five o’clock in the camp of the Truth hunters: Talk, round and smooth as party balloons drifting on the evening air; almost casual, yes, beneath a fog of urgency. Seasoned veterans all beneath the canopy, canap s in hand, martinis, gin of only the highest calibre arming to encounter the countess and the […]

Leland James | LUST AND THE COSMOS

LUST AND THE COSMOS — a heresy of lost seconds   In the beginning, the genesis I fathom: two explosions, the two not quite coming at once; actually (except in Hollywood) more likely a big bang and seconds later another ignited by the first but needing twice the duration to, as it were, to come […]

Leland James | LOGISTICS

LOGISTICS On a transport ship out of Chesapeake Bay bound for Sicily —the Big War— a box mislabeled “Projector Parts” contained 40,000 Purple Hearts.   Author’s Bio Leland James is the author of Inside Apples, a full length book of poetry. His poems have been published in ten countries in many periodicals and anthologies, including, […]

Leland James | LAMENT FROM THE EIGHTH CIRCLE OF HELL

LAMENT FROM THE EIGHTH CIRCLE OF HELL “To lead you to an overwhelming question … Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit. — T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” * A place between the first sip of coffee and a bite of buttered toast, I […]