Making Sense of Parachutes

by Neil Ellman

The sense of it

is its senselessness

the way I circle

incoherent

gyres

this way and that

on bent wings

buzzard-like

seeming to go

where sense

takes me

without any sense

direction itself

useless

no compass

no map

no desire

devotion none

then falling

as if I were a bomb

senselessly falling

w/o a parachute

to a mindless earth.

by Neil Ellman

(after the painting by Ozdemic Atlan)

I am an outlier

on the family tree

hanging by my fingernails

and prehensile tail

from a limb about to break

due to the wind, rain

and ravages of age                                                              

a relative

of Neanderthals,

Socrates

and criminals

too numerous to name

some estranged

some extinct

leaving me to carry on

the family name

carved in the bark

of an ancient tree

about to fall.

Neil Ellman, a poet from New Jersey, has published more than 1,500 poems in venues throughout the world. He has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize and twice for Best of the Net.

Ann Marie Rhiel is the Assistant Art Director for Yellow Mama Webzine. She was born and raised in Bronx, New York, presently living in New Jersey. She reconnected with her passion for art in 2016 and has had her work exhibited in art galleries around northern New Jersey ever since. She is a commissioned painting artist, who also enjoys photography. Her work has also appeared in Black Petals and Megazine Official.