Subtrahends
Inside a neighborhood school,
there’s a criminal mind,
with a catch dog slant,
and a hookah strangle.
The terminus catered
in this photoelectric age
by servants of freezing steel.
Chewing on intentional catnip, sold on streets.
From home,
kindergarten spitballs to teenage backstage hoodlums
with teenage wages.
The make-believe of a social language.
The wild chill of booklore boomerangs,
some wintergreen and some the ungranted bookish.
These cowards win the booby prize,
steal antiseptic notebooks caressed
by the tenderhearted.
Pull the twine cord.
The tension never windproof.
The smell, the stench
of a magenta gargle,
after the captain of boomtown
spreads his cancer,
no manhood to be found,
no carols to be sung,
no handsprings to entertain.
Empty cartridges canonized.
Those taken away,
the subtrahends,
lie fantastic
at history’s stream,
lie as a caravan of sergeants,
once scared, now only scarred
by what can only be called
another manmade bacterium ID’ed.
Linda Imbler
Linda Imbler is a Wichita, Kansas based author. 178 poetry publications have accepted work from this poet. Linda has been nominated for 2 Pushcart Prizes and 7 Best Of The Nets. In 2025, she was nominated and accepted into the Marquis Registry of Who’s Who In America for her work in poetry. She has self-published twelve poetry books. Soma Publishing has published her four e-book collections, The Sea’s Secret Song; Pairings, a hybrid of short fiction and poetry; That Fifth Element; and Per Quindecim. Examples of Linda’s poetry and a listing of publications can be found at lindaspoetryblog.blogspot.com.