Excerpt: You won’t give him the validation,
even as he smooths his hands
over the rear of her jeans,
removing her cell phone,
so that she can pay with it.
Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323
Excerpt: Color fades,
drained,
like you from me.
Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323
Excerpt: Clock ticks each second,
marking each breath you take,
glass cutting your heart,
words throbbing your brain,
with thoughts you dare not repeat…
Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323
Excerpt: She believes in God after the rains come,
when prayers are heard
after the silence
of slammed doors…
Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323
Excerpt:
You paid no attention to them
once they hit the floor,
useless,
collateral damage in our civil war,
bodies to walk over.
Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323
Excerpt:
Aftershocks remain
in glass fragments in the mind
that broke with each thought…
Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323
Excerpt:
Instead of our destination,
we got nowhere.
Now, we are lost
and we have only ourselves to blame.
Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323
Excerpt:
Sometimes my foot slips,
my ankle twists.
You used to catch me,
but now you allow me to stumble.
Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323
Excerpt:
I looked at the clouds growing in the skies,
your tired eyes, as we started the descent,
medallion in hand:
a souvenir for me to remember,
the first time I saw you on the mountain.
Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323
Excerpt:
We tasted the bubbles at dawn,
when the air was thick with the August heat,
musty sweat.
Our tongues tasted the soap,
but we shook off the cleanliness
for the taste of earth…
Cast Out of Eden is available at Politics and Prose at https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781624292323
J.L. Smith 