The Ecphorizer

Capital "T," Capital "C"

Wes Hight

Issue #49 (September 1985)

"A most enchanting wizard did abide... "

--The Castle of Indolence, J. Thomson The Elder

Each thing has a purpose, is meaningful, sure
And right in its place (wherein lies its allure).
Most of us easily agree upon that,
Yet some ask, "What purpose belongs to The Cat?"

What purpose, what purpose belongs to The Cat?!?
Be off with that question — ask it of Sir Rat!
Tell, what besides cats abide things
Like teasings with yarn balls and with strings?

And what else gives meaning to treetops so narrow
They're passed up by even the skinniest sparrow?
The Cat can cause firemen to climb there, can get
More action by making a human its pet.

The fact is, The Cat has a manifold purpose
Which subtly empowers it to wholly usurp us.
And first in its plan to live easy and fat
Is raising the question: "What harm is The Cat?"

WES HIGHT describes himself as "neither a cat freak nor an anti-cat freak... The best I do for them now is to provide (or not do anything about) the jungle around my house." This is the most creative answer to city weed-abatement programs we have ever heard.

Contributor Profile

Wes Hight

Wes Hight, Texas Mensan, won an award from the American Poetry Association. Why are so many good poets from Texas?

Haibun 228

Sheila E. Murphy

Issue #49 (September 1985)

Again, reasonable care. What matters, the sandwich innards, not dark or bread. The happening in between. How we arrived at the next calendar square where pencil marks have littered white insides, soiled clean space still erasable. But can the past ever be retrieved? Curls of cigarette smoke sucked back into the white stalk and placed in the foil wrapper. Never touched. Whose responsibility, the free will floating like a soft cloud veering toward a net that cannot catch it? Forwarding toward a bright light seeming inevitable. If it shines at all then I am watching and am changed. So carefully, I barely know who I have been. Absorb what is in this room and wait to be discovered. Is there another being conscious of my life pressuring forward? The carpet, walls and ceiling gathering the substance shifting into material composition. Who can allow this room the safety of itself?

A butterfly, chalkwings, flight emptying life force

SHEILA E. MURPHY, a Ph.D. from Arizona State University, lists poetry as her "true occupation," although she is "a corporate educator for purposes of sustenance." She also studied at the University of Michigan and Nazareth College.

Contributor Profile

Wes Hight

Wes Hight, Texas Mensan, won an award from the American Poetry Association. Why are so many good poets from Texas?

coconut grove

Sheryl L. Nelms

Issue #49 (September 1985)

hairy nubian nuts
hang

nubbed together
under the green frizz

in a magnificent
gathering

of giant gonads

Prolific poet SHERYL L. NELMS has had her work published in such recherche journals as Naked Man, Sulphur River Review, and Up Against the Wall Mother. What ever happened to magazines with straight- forward names, like THE ECPHORIZER?

Contributor Profile

Wes Hight

Wes Hight, Texas Mensan, won an award from the American Poetry Association. Why are so many good poets from Texas?