Vicious Thing

Bones in my chest
show through skin,
hidden by layers
of winter drapery.
Boots click cement paths –
a delicate sound.
It’s all part of the show!
The audience member heckles,
“Are you going to eat that?”
and my bones burn in my chest.
I say nothing –
I’m a vicious thing.

Smoke and Mirrors

The box, decorated with question marks, is alive with sound.
Within eight vertices, a harp strums.
The rhythm is off, but my curiosity summits.
I lift the lid,
you jump out of the box,
darting – here, there, everywhere.
Cannot be caught,
except in a lie.

Ban This Book

If I could be anything
I’d be a banned book.
Simmering with newspaper headlines,
(some that didn’t make the front page)
crowded with images of people
Being
And
Expressing
Themselves (their real selves).
If I could be anything
I’d be the rainbow in a storm,
the tiny sliver of hope found
in a truth-telling banned book.

Linda Sacco lives in Australia. Her poetry has been published in Ariel Chart, Bluepepper, Dead Snakes, Dual Coast Magazine, 50 Haikus, Haiku Journal, Haiku Pond, Inwood Indiana, Mad Swirl, Poetry Quarterly, Poetry Pacific, Tanka Journal, Three Line Poetry and Track + Signal Magazine. 

In 2022, her poem River was nominated for The Pushcart Prize. In 2023 her poem Conversations with Trees was nominated for a Best of the Net award.

She is the author of the Which Is Your Perfect Pet? ebook series with titles on Dog Breeds, Designer Dogs, Cat Breeds and Birds. Rabbits and Rodents is due for release in 2025.