harbor lights
red/green, red/green
gleaming guides
for ships at night
the old man’s skin
smells of sea
salt cracked hands
salmon flashing
in the boat’s
flaked hull
red/green, red/green
will take you home
to steaming stew
the slake of sex
a soft bed that
doesn’t sway
rocking/rocking
the ship's captain
takes tourists
to spot whales
woozy, reeling
rocking/rocking
a grey whale spews
so close you see
rimes of barnacles
on his marbled back
red/green,red/green
the captain harbor—
bound to hose his
ship and head to
Lucky's Last Call
lingering 'til
midnight as
I sit on the
dock wrapped
in wool blankets
dreamy under
night’s starred sky
I gaze at
harbor lights that
guide my life
red/green, red/green
and yellow ones
that flash warning
stay away from men
who steer sorrow in
a boat called love
the lights dissolve
one by one
thirty years
in a leather
chair listening
sharing worlds
witnessing wonders
a light goes out
as I lock the door
three children grown
lucky for a
weekly chat
a two word text
a skinny Skype
three lights fade
into murky waters
crumpled slips
mock ambition
your work does not
suit our present needs
we wish you
placing your etc. etc.
the muse’s light
flickers
the harbor dark
no reference
point to guide
red/green, red/green
no yellow light
to flash alerts
a dim shadow
on the shore
the stubbed out
space of death
before death
the gray whale sinks
fishhooks
scrape the bottom
harbor lights
red/green, red/green
Claire Scott is an award winning poet who has published in many literary magazines. She was nominated for the 2014 Pushcart Prize. Claire is a winner of the Arizona State Poetry Society 2013 Annual Poetry Contest. Her forthcoming first collection of poems, Waiting to be Called, will be published by IF SF Press in late 2014.
Kelly Nelson
My Uncle at Nineteen
His Mother Writes
  the Warden, 1955
Jon-Michael Frank
Funny How Time Slips Away
Not Fade Away
Jacqueline Jules
Obsolete Angers
J. Bradley
Yelp Review:
  Planned Parenthood
of Greater Orlando
Yelp Review:
  The Milk Bar
Amy Schriebman Walter
Hope in a Yellow Dress
Miho Kinnas
Earlobes
Mark Povinelli
Notes I
Notes II
Kenneth Nichols
The Best Writers
 Bombed the SAT
John Patsynski
The Money Weapon
Aileen Bassis
Pellucid Musing
Travis Macdonald
When the Map's Crease
Becomes an Axis
  and Detaches
Kris Hall
Pyromanian I
Pyromanian II
Claire Scott
Harbor Lights
Elizabeth Kate Switaj
Poseidon's Canto