Men of good fortune, often cause empires to fall

Growing Old In San Francisco
-- by Jack Gilbert

Two girls barefoot walking in the rain
both girls lovely, one of them is sane
hurting me softly
hurting me though
two girls barefoot walking in the snow
walking in the white snow
walking in the black
two girls barefoot never coming back

Pendulum's Progress
-- by Klipschutz

It used to be a scandal
Now it’s a flap

First it was a mystery
Then it became history

Which is to say forgotten

Of a sudden it was back—
With a vengeance not a bullet

Loose words on high were haunting
Old familiar places

The cast includes
- a ferreter
- a flak

And the one we’d castrate if we could
- a lying Cheshire sack

Who skates from under it
(He built his conscience from a kit)

It used to be a scandal
Now it’s a flap

"What Do Women Want?"
-- by Kim Addonizio

I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what's underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I'm the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I'll pull that garment
from its hanger like I'm choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I'll wear it like bones, like skin,
it'll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in.