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Two Poems
by Rita Mookerjee NemesisPeople admire a sense of industry / a spirited sort of communism / how the labyrinth tenants toil away over early blooms / tufted legs weighted with sun dust / convening in their planet in service of the one true queen / everyone admires their golden down / but wasps are paper…
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Three Poems
by Darren Demare EMILY AS THE SECOND WINTERI pressed the bleakness of Ohioto my face & I breathed so deeplythat I swallowed old wounds to create new wounds& Emily, she watched all of this beneath a blanket she made,next to a fire she started. I, too often, force myselfto experience all of Ohio all of…
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If My Name Were a Verb
by Glen Armstrong My body is here again.It doesn’t want to be.I’m angryat my clothing. I feel unbalanced when I watchmovies about peoplestarting overin new towns. My body has been to Detroit.It’s best to say that dangerisn’t dangerous. I’m angrythat the sensuous yet pragmaticshape of a canegets wastedon Christmas candy. It’s best to say that…
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Three Poems
by Anne Mikusinski Notes From a Waiting Roomtwenty-seven jumbled piecesformed instinctivelywork flawlesslytogethercreating music that inviteideasto appear on a scraps offound paperI sketch you outfrom memory and wishful thinkingfilling in the blanks with unsaidwords. It Lasts Longeran image of youcaught unawarein profilebacklitin shades of indigoor melancholy bluea complementary colorto your silver hairand the tiny crossin your…
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Two Poems
by Lyn White RooksThere are just two pieces left.Two fragments of our dreams.Two castles in the air,the remnants of a gamewe playedwhere there was no winner.Like a game of chesswith an improbable ending.Just two rooks left on the board.More flying overour castles in the airleaving them behind. The Stack of StonesThe stack of flat stoneswas…
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Baba Yaga
by Caitlin Copland I dreamed of the Yaga.She looked me in the eyetold me she would consume me. I was not afraid —even when she opened the skylightand began painting with my ashes. Caitlin Copland Quietly honing her wordsmith skills, she has recently found her voice in the rich soil of the Rocky Mountains. With the…
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Mental Health Day on Sunset Boulevard
by Gabriel Ricard Emily and her huge teethhad to learn the weird-waitress-in-a-small-neighborhood-being-eaten-alive-by-the-bigger-surrounding-one-way that you can’t just decide to go to Hollywood,because that’s easier than telling everyonethat love is just the worst fucking kind of social contract. And then staying right the fuck there,with her feet on the ground,and her heart dividing to conquer the factthat…
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The Empress
by Caitlin Copland Galaxies are breaking from your skin, love.Purple clad mystics, climbing stairwell veins,to breathe the tides of your good graces.Resting behind midnight blue arcanayou sit,Venus,crowned in sanguine stardustpouring seeded life over this half moon diadem.You are all things I am not.Holding this pomegranate worldwith open generosity,calling all those in need to drink.How could…
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To Great Lengths
by Gabriel Ricard Your out of body experience may vary,and a lot of it is going to dependon where you want the kidswho won’t go hometo bring your bones, when you’ve drank everythingat some bozo’s inappropriate,fairly pathetic Cinco de Mayo,and you’ve committed yourselfto eating flowers by the thousands,voting in the lunaticwho probably won’t get a…
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Heartwarming Hostage Situation
by Gabriel Ricard Doctors and other assorted medical personnel are moving in and out of the cafeteria with varying degrees of arrogance, exhaustion, and the sincerity to do more than the current limits of control for what most people consider reasonably kind. He imagines for fun that the next seven who walk in, pretty much…