poems
THE CURIOSITIES OF DECLINE Stillness through rainy fog— car’s creep through flood pools, sidewalks padded with oak leaves cloak. Light held, luminous, grieving. This dying is no surprise. Helicopter’s flyover burr flattens through its sweep. Ferals slink the pavement’s driest line, shadows skew under streetlamp, dripping bough. Cooping in a stairwell, a panhandler’s broken shoes […]
Read more "THE CURIOSITIES OF DECLINE – R.T. CASTLEBERRY"Mannequins in a Perfect World On soft chairs they wait. Dark strands of unwashed vinyl hair; clean follicles strung with gold, a color in every woman’s eyes. Empty light fades in worn cloth under hands on arm rests woven with time unraveling: a fleshy palm hidden when a woman is unsure. Ebony and bronzed shoulders […]
Read more "Mannequins in a Perfect World – P.M. FLYNN"Recurring Tears It’s as if I committed a sin in my past life And the one I’m living is the sentence Wondering when the pain will come to a full stop Seems to get relief I will have to fall into a coma In order to get a breather, already had an opener Just need […]
Read more "RECURRING TEARS – Racheal Chie (from MUTARE ZIMBABWE)"Dust to Dust It gathers behind doors, the muck of hours and days and years, blown through vents and tracked in on the soles of shoes that have hiked through hell and heaven. They may notice at first, casually, but awareness is soon cloaked within other thoughts, other times, the tired ache of heads ready […]
Read more "DUST TO DUST – C.S. FUQUA"cut-price cut-price do i bump & struggle through another dislocated day or do i return to my bed where guilt will gnaw on my discount store existence or wait for monday sales that return so much less
Read more "CUT-PRICE – Geoffrey Aitken"All this Broken Love I didn’t tell you how I felt when you said those things. I will tell you now. Those words are long rides on the highway. Broken sandals. A no-fly zone. Your anger sits on my tongue. It’s a restless bee. It shakes the walls, paints them green. Once we danced to […]
Read more "2 POEMS – Amy Soricelli"SEPTEMBER II It’s September third The ornamental maple Turns, I look away.
Read more "SEPTEMBER II – Marc Janssen"Forsaken I am the pen she left uncapped The one she tossed in the bottom drawer. I’m the line she crossed out when she wrote me off the one she crossed at every spot with every hook with every loop with every slant on every point each blot, each space: every trace of ink ran […]
Read more "FORESAKEN – Frank William Finney"The War in Syria His father didn’t sleep in his apartment. The apartment was being bombed. The absurdity of paying the rent. So a colleague told me, dark circles underneath his eyes. He was working double shifts in spite of his lack of hope, worried. My father said nothing to this. He is both a […]
Read more "THE WAR IN SYRIA – Daniel Schulz"AFTER JACOB BLAKE After the medical aid After the helicopter After immediately to Milwaukee After lengthening up through the crown After gravel shaped like twilight After tailwinds through the reeds After the pelvic floor After a mother tells her daughter, never say the Lord’s name in vain After, who’s name then am I supposed to […]
Read more "BLACK LIVES MATTER – AFTER JACOB BLAKE – TIM STALEY"
Cacti Fur 