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  Cover Issue 16 PAINTED CAT

by MICHAEL LEE JOHNSON
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The painted cat
on my balcony
hangs in the sun,
bleaches out
it is wooden
survival kit,
cut short-
then rots
chips
paint,
cracks
widen in joints,
no infant sparrow wings
nestled in the hole
beneath its neck-
then falls down.
No longer a swinger
in latter days, August wind.

   
   

 

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Michael Lee Johnson lived ten years in Canada during the Vietnam era: now known as the Illinois poet, from Itasca, IL. Today he is a poet, freelance writer, photographer who experiments with poetography (blending poetry with photography), and small business owner in Itasca, Illinois, who has been published in more than 875 small press magazines in 27 countries, he edits 10 poetry sites. Michael is the author of The Lost American: "From Exile to Freedom", several chapbooks of poetry, including "From Which Place the Morning Rises" and "Challenge of Night and Day", and "Chicago Poems". He also has over 76 poetry videos on YouTube. Read Michael's poetry elsewhere: poetryman.mysite.com, lulu.com/spotlight/promomanusa, www.youtube.com/user/poetrymanusa/video, and amazon.com/The-Lost-American-Exile-Freedom. Follow Michael Lee Johnson on Facebook/poetrymanusa, and twitter/poetrymanusa. Johnson's poem I Am The Dustman appears in the Summer 2015 issue.



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