Other Poets/Other Poems

Gilbert Allen, Issue 42

Anonymous, Issue 17

Antler, Issue 36

Amy Beeder, Issue 16

Boyd W. Bensen, Issue 31

Donna Biffar, Issue 15

Kimberly Blaeser, Issue 27

P. W. Boisvert, Issue 39

Rick Cannon, Issue 28

Jared Carter, Issue 24

David Chorlton, Issue 40

Billy Collins, Issue 1, Issue 18

Philip Dacey, Issue 6

Denise Duhamel, Issue 13

Stephen Dunn, Issue 34

Stuart Dybek, Issue 41

Dave Etter, Issue 14

Norma Hammond, Issue 22

David Hernandez, Issue 23

Susan Holahan, Issue 12

Tim Hunt, Issue 42

Angela Just, Issue 32

Lisa Kadous, Issue 20

Julie King, Issue 30

Lyn Lifshin, Issue 19

Louis McKee, Issue 5

Eve Merriam, Issue 7

Pamela Miller, Issue 8

Lisel Mueller, Issue 29

D. Nurkse, Issue 9

Alexis Orgera, Issue 35

James Reiss, Issue 26

Len Roberts, Issue 2

Kristopher Saknussemm, Issue 10

R. T. Smith, Issue 38

Cathy Song, Issue 21

Judith Valente, Issue 37

Mary Ann Waters, Issue 11

Charles Harper Webb, Issue 25

J. D. Whitney, Issue 33

Bayla Winters, Issue 3

Lila Zeiger, Issue 4

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The Peaceable Kingdom

I'd like to believe in a time
when the lion lay down with the lamb,
because if it happened once,
why couldn't it happen again?

By the time I came along
lambs were running from lions,
blood curdling under their fleece.

Right now it's simply hearsay.
Right now the nature programs show
only predator and prey,
except when the camera has a heart
and lets some small fry get away.

Right now it's the knife and the throat.
It's the batterer and the battered.
It's the desperate killer
and the desperate victim down the street.
Right now the lion yawns in his palace
while the lamb is loaded into the truck.

But we're told the peaceable kingdom
will return in the future. 0, the future!
How it never lets us down
with its dazzling come-on of rising suns,
its endless floor show of happiness,
its brilliant strategies of escape.

--Lisel Mueller
Copyright © 2003 by Free Lunch Arts Alliance