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The Bombyx Gigantica
by Elliot Harper “Where are you going with that? Hey, peg leg! Huh? Hey, Marky boy! I’m talking to you!” They burst out laughing at his comments. They don’t expect me to answer. I’ve had enough experience with their bullying to know that. They just want to torture me. Sometimes I wonder if they will…
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Sunset
by Sarah Mackey Kirby You caught me in the trawler of your sapphire stare. Kissed scars on battered heart that struggles more and more to beat. And blood to bleed. Where broken nights await you. This fate. This love I’ve watered till roots dug deep for you. Just in time to germinate your future. I…
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When Opposites Meet
by Angelica Liu Twilight and rains followed us here Daylight and city were left behind The ancient temple lies in its lonely solemnity Intruders, we had met the end of our world Here the opposites meet The day was meeting the night The summer was meeting the autumn The civilized was meeting the primitive The…
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Joyce
by Ed Ahern When I was fourteen there was a girl I thought was cute but never had the nerve to chase. We spent four years near but never close and thirty years in mutual ignorance. Her image lingered in what-if conjectures about who I’d guessed her to be and how we might have meshed…
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The Dead by Maura O’Connor
one by one, they were all becoming shades… —James Joyce I fled your deaths. They happened anyway. Me, the missing witness. Michael, I will miss you most. The roses you gave me the night you told me you hated me. The song you wrote comparing my eyes to ocean my dreams to rainbow. It wasn’t…
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Honeymoon on the Volga
by William Doreski This is our third honeymoon and the first on which you’ve spoken to me, to anyone. The Volga flows under our little room. The innkeeper wields no recognizable language. Your native Russian means nothing to him. When English falls from my mouth it writhes on the carpet, where he extinguishes it with…
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Four Poems
by Stephanie Valente The Pontiacin this universe,the guitars are lostskulking under bed sheetswatching rain fallthrough a windowin this universe,we take turnsdriving(almost) endlesslyi love the cari love the privacyurgent intimacyin this universeyou’ll tell meeverythingi’ll learn half-truthswe’ll never get tired I Came Here to Be Alonebaby, i think of youlike Coca-Cola chilling in the fridgeso fondly, like a…
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Bau
by Grace Yannotta Artist: John Truck The dog sits in the corner of the room. She looks like one of those pharaoh dogs, Suze thinks, the lithe golden body, the sharp ears, the keen dark eyes. The ones that line the tombs of the olden kings. The protectors. She knows she’s not supposed to stare,…
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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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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…