DEATH IS RATTLING Death is rattling me From my throat to my balls To my bones When I wake up in the morning, As I contemplate this space I occupy, Drive to work Or pick up some groceries. It lurks whenever it is not staring into my eyes And daring me to stare back. The […]
Read more "DEATH IS RATTLING – JOHN TUSTIN"Symphony The ambient noise of cars, the atonal honk of impatient drivers, rushing to work, until March 2020. When the Skies became clearer, the Roads, quieter, the deadlines, the timetables, simply Memories The Birdsong, the rhythmic tarmac strike of pedestrians, a Symphony. The Quiet third movement of a Concerto, and at the end, only one […]
Read more "A PANDEMIC POEM – SYMPHONY – Ben Macnair"Zulema brought a Ouija board to 3rd period Zulema brought a Ouija board to 3rd period. She’d lost her boyfriend to the war. He was shot by friendly fire in Syria. No civilian in America had even known he was there; a ghost before he became one. Zulema set up the board on her desk. […]
Read more "3 GHOST POEMS – TIM STALEY"Tim will burn “I’m a musician” just say that you’re broke. Show us the empty guitar case you lie in front of you In front of your home like Oscar the Grouch, mask a passion with angst Pull that drive back like a pit on a chain bully to subdue so you don’t show us […]
Read more "TIM WILL BURN – PAIGE DUFFY"Food Chain little girl / eaten by her thoughts / eaten by adults / who like interrupting / eaten by retail therapy / lots and lots of retail therapy / consumed by itchy blazers that are four sizes too big but priced at 80% off / eaten by high-brow ideals / like Vogue and espressos […]
Read more "FOOD CHAIN – Bruna Gomes"Timber The US is the fourth-largest exporter of forest products in the world: $9.7b in 2015. Ergo, money does grow on trees. Indeed, it is made of their bodies. Ergo when a tree falls in a forest, the trees will hold a moment of silence for one of their own whether any human is around […]
Read more "TIMBER – Megan Wildhood"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"“Reverence for the women in the poet’s life, stealth bombers, a juvenile cougar strangled on the trail and plenty of blank space on well-organized pages come together in The Pieces You have Left, Staley’s second full-length collection. Echoes of recent giants from Mary Oliver to bell hooks, musical quotations from Lucinda Williams to Miles Davis, support […]
Read more "STUNNING SOPHOMORE EFFORT FROM NEW MEXICO POET: TIM STALEY ~ ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY"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)"
Cacti Fur 