In an ongoing series, the editors, former contributors, and readers of Eclectica have been invited to write a poem containing four pre-chosen words. The words for this issue are sliver, sidewalk, vanish, and portent.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are current, elude, hidden, and lamp.

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(These are excerpts—click on the title to view the whole poem)
 

New to School
 
I didn't tell them I was dreaming of being alone again.
 
Daryl Scroggins

 

Totality
 
Small creatures share my tread—
joint custodians of shale and twitching weeds.
 
Barbara De Franceschi

 

deceptive calm (Spotlight Runner-Up!)
 
shadows risk
shattering on slick
sidewalk
 
Nancy Jentsch

 

Persephone makes winter
 
The sidewalk where she
saw the lovers meet, all creations
glistened in carmine sweat.
 
Sheikha A.

 

Richard
 
no lack of grace
in him, yet wild as a moth fluttering
 
Judy Kaber

 

Chalk Lines
 
In those days, our world was made of plum trees
and tomato plants, chestnuts and crabapples
 
Greta Bolger

 

We Could Watch TV Like Always
 
now I wish
I had a sliver of a belief
in ghosts
 
Christopher Smith

 

Driving South on I-55
 
I haven't seen a sidewalk or unanswered question
in hours—left them back in Chicago.
 
David Mathews

 

I Confide in Lucrezia Borgia about My Divorce
 
Bored by my talk of mice
and the ways I'm not killing them, she vanishes
 
Jennifer Finstrom