War’s Save the Date
Car bombs in white dresses
innocently lift their lace hems.
Futures are denied
by veils of tears
shed in Baghdad tire troughs.
Heaven is seen in rainbows
of gasoline rivers,
momentarily shining,
while sinking into sand-
castles of afterlife dreams.
A door opens to the house
of many rooms prepared.
The ring of life descends,
caught tight at the bottom
of a digit’s bliss.
No surface, no ascension,
no hand grasp up.
Wedded to eternity
in a honeymoon of petals,
peach-flesh strewn.
Photos and reception follow.
Marilyn Zelke Windau is a Wisconsin poet and a former public school art teacher. She enjoys painting with words. Her poems and articles have appeared in many printed and online venues and several anthologies. Her chapbook Adventures in Paradise (Finishing Line Press) and self-illustrated manuscript, Momentary Ordinary (Pebblebrook Press) were published in 2014, and Owning Shadows (Kelsay Books) in 2017. She adds her maiden name when she writes to honor her father, who was also a writer.
Weatherbeaten Literature 