Community
Midtown in void
In between a type of person and I move through it
Connecting to no one I move through it
In a car I watch with control
Everyone in front of me stops at the yellow light
when they could have gone through it
In a bus we turn together
I always forget my stop on purpose and
get off two blocks up
Like the empty used car lots
this place is too big to know
even the smallest part has become too big to know
Things That Don’t Matter
Just days before my mother died
she said to me,
“You are a hard person to like.”
She also said I am becoming old too fast in my heart.
I did not want to lift her out of the wheelchair again
for another ride at the amusement park.
Morning of the Dead
A heavy tide came through last night
the mist in the marine air gathers the damp,
and the hand that gets in touch with things
left its violent essence
wildflowers tossed, pulled and frazzled
their petals glimmer drenched
near Pelican Bay the sand is heavy and wet and torn up
the roots from the coconut trees exposed green brown and raw
down the shore animal remains ripped bare in dawn
sting ray still flapping and missing his side
blood and bone and sand
jelly fish, spiked fish, organs ripped clean
the birds come soon to take death from this scene
Elizabeth Flora Moore currently studies creative writing in the Master of Fine Arts program at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She enjoys writing poetry, essays, and reviews, but sees writing and better understanding the craft of fiction as her ultimate academic goal. Elizabeth has two book reviews published in Rain Taxi and is consistently generating new projects within her various writing courses. When people ask Elizabeth “what she writes about” or “what inspires her” she answers with a coined phrase she terms as “perpetual opposite day.” She sees the world at constant paradoxes and dualities and everything she writes roots from these observations. Elizabeth also owns and runs a commercial contract cleaning company called Moore Cleaning Services, is an active member of the U.S Women’s Chamber of Commerce, and volunteers tutoring inner-city teenagers. When she finishes her Master’s program she will be applying for professorships to teach creative writing at the college level.