poems
Light Smoker A light smoker outside a luncheonette he stood, feathers of smoke coming up from the cigarette between his fingers, taking a break from taking carriages in to the Food Fair. Why not do it again? I asked. In a round-about way he said no. Do it meant get into the music business, being […]
Read more "LIGHT SMOKER – Peter Mladinic"Great-Aunt She got drunk, had sex, and got pregnant for the first time on one thunderclap of a night. One night, and it all began unfolding like a dark flower or the division of cancer cells. The bastard husband. The divorce. The troubled kids, in and out of jail. The lonely future in an empty […]
Read more "GREAT-AUNT – ROSALIE HENDON"The Reprieve Well half past midnightabout a quarter to threea grey rat nibbleson a stale block of brieHe would prefer a slight smidgenof a fire braised pigeonbut according to his religionhe can only drink peeSo he pissed in a cupand drank it right upand knelt at the altaron one bended kneeHe asked for a pardonbefore […]
Read more "THE REPRIEVE – TIM HILDEBRANDT"MEN’S WORK Somebody has to kill the cow, Somebody has to go down the stairs when there is a noise Somebody has to carry the baby out of the burning building Somebody has to stoke the fire Somebody has to find the Golden Fleece Somebody, when the food runs low, has to go Somebody has […]
Read more "MEN’S WORK – Marc Janssen "Frogs “Grow grass, stone frogs,” written on bathroom walls. Hippie beads, oodles colorful acid pills in dresser draws, no clothes, kaleidoscope condoms, ostentatious sex. No Bibles or Sundays that anyone remembers. Rochdale College, Toronto, Ontario 1972, freedom school, free education. Makes no sense, when you’re high on a song “American Women” blasting eardrums and police […]
Read more "FROGS – Michael Lee Johnson"Everyday Things We’re still getting used to the new house: How the blinds work Whether the couch belongs where we put it How to set the thermostat Where the good dishes go (In a marriage-defining moment My wife said, “I want guests To see them, but I don’t want it To look like we put […]
Read more "EVERYDAY THINGS – ANDREW HUBBARD"Alzheimer’s 1 I see the heads of a family bobbing above the shrubs– or is it really small people holding up sticks with heads attached? 2 a burning shovel at the bar a boneless leaf in the bed 3 water broke Helen while diving into lake 4 Helen’s lips a rain check purple clouds 5 […]
Read more "ALZHEIMER’S – TIM STALEY & SEAN BRANSON"1. When a virus was dressed in rapture • Circa 2020: How it burgled our country In the hem of a certain night befuddled The omniscient among us. A prelude to rapture, some would call— I recall. A prophet could not Document this ambush on his calendar Of foresight. So much for the unforeseen That […]
Read more "4 POEMS from a coastal axis in Lagos Island -Tukur Ridwan"The swamp eyes are blinking in the dark; bayou moon slick on the surface as if oil slowly leaks over the lily pads. Seaweed and liquor, black licorice and dawn; kiss my ear and whisper music to my blue veins. Bubbles lazily drift to the surface. The ripples idly lap the nightly sky.
Read more "INTRODUCING Alannah Radburn"Euclid Avenue My dead speak to me too softly under the traffic noise of an early commute. Their words do not come through, but I can hear the complaint in their tone. At a stop light where I am boxed in by big rigs, their voices are fearful like children. I think they are trying […]
Read more "EUCLID AVENUE – John Brantingham"
Cacti Fur 