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 funeral, impartial, reputation, and footsteps.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are drape, harpoon, lullaby, and garden.

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

Two Word Poems
 
There's nothing big at stake,
except maybe my reputation
 
Ray Templeton

 

Expectations
 
It's not until numbness clutches at stems
and amour falls to ground,
that naked loneliness takes hold
 
Barbara De Franceschi

 

Dog Poem
 
This is the poem that happens when the man who must belong to the dog is dead asleep in a bus shelter
 
Elizabeth Kerper

 

Ragnarok
 
Our bloodlines,
filled with legendary
pagan reputations,
are lingering spirits
 
David Mathews

 

Clocks: No Time for a Funeral
 
I like grandfathers best,
so I can cut off their hands
when they steal time.
 
Candace Butler

 

Hubbock
 
the woman steps out.
she is me. exactly me right down to the dress.
she points the gun at me and fires
 
David Ewald

 

Let's go visit Millie
 
Funny how he went fifteen months
without speaking to her, yet he wants to see if the rosebush
his ex-wife planted still grows above her head.
 
Judy Kaber

 

An Old Crush Takes a Picture in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples
 
what she is writing
with the stylus she holds to her lips might
be household accounts
 
Jennifer Finstrom