Grieve as You Perceive Look thru these deliverance-denied eyes: You are now a child from a land beyond this land. All you need is an altruistic hand. What you get instead is a jail bereft of a bed. Look thru these deliverance-denied eyes: You are now a cis woman who demands autonomy over your chosen […]
Read more "BOB MCNEIL ~ Grieve as You Perceive"When Denis pulled the lever on the firebox in front of the school on a Saturday afternoon, and we hid in the bushes up the street watching the firemen get out of the truck, look around the front of the school, and then get back into the truck and drive away, I didn’t know that […]
Read more "Jeffrey Zable ~ THE LESSON"Mister slept with Miss;everything fits;dawn’s first light shineson bodies faded and inertweary and wornafter the exertionssuch as we know themof paradisial pleasures;to bring it downto earth and simplicitytwo bodies, one hairy and one smooth,side by side, catching the lightafter a long night of entanglement,not yet awake to the burdenof servitude to love and Eros,to a […]
Read more "Jack D. Harvey ~ ACT OF KIND"SO MUCH MORE: Abstracts, Unfinished Sequences, and Political Poems(Small Harbor, 2024)by Darren C. Demaree Flailing Load Stones Catching LightA Book Review by Tim Staley In the title poem of W.H. Auden’s 1969 collection City Without Walls, Auden lays out the “dire poetics” which would topically drive American poetry for the next 55 years: environmental concerns, […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW : SO MUCH MORE BY DARREN C. DEMAREE"Steen Rasmussen YOU ARE You are the symptom And the disease You are the reason And the excuse Nothing makes sense When you’re not around Yet, it does us no good You hanging about And you’re just hanging about now Babies are born And old people die Accidents happen Disasters destroy You give me an […]
Read more "Steen Rasmussen ~ YOU ARE"FLYING FIRST CLASS ON A PLANE Cashed in pointsso I could do it once in my life.Lots of leg room.Comfortable back.Room at the sides.And attendant alwaysat the ready.Hid my facewhen the economy passengerstrudged slowlythrough the first-class cabinon their wayto the cramped seatsin the back.Couldn’t find the right expressionfor someone who wastaking a couple of hours […]
Read more "John Grey ~ FLYING FIRST CLASS ON A PLANE"Over The Edge I’m standing on the edge, at the very end, I’m at the very end as far as I can go without falling and I’m not sure where I’m looking, outwards over the horizon or inwards to some inner depth, the inside of something unclear. If I let myself fall where will I […]
Read more "Lynn White ~ Over the Edge"MODERN DAY GLADIATORS:A MODEST PROPOSAL Hey fans, I’m sick of these barnburners.heart-attack endings, last shot nightmares,even if your team wins, blood pressure rises,hearts palpitate, way too much stress.All you have to look forward to is the next game.Two hours of agony till the last second shot.Enough. Let’s do it like the gladiators of old,mano a […]
Read more "Vern Fein ~ MODERN DAY GLADIATORS:A MODEST PROPOSAL"Something to Lose Unlike the cars colliding head-on in the other lane, I still have something to lose. Silence in the snowy woods. Cats mingling in graceful curves. Dogs smiling like celebrities. Still, I must attend to the crash. Both drivers look deceased but raise their eyebrows when I ask if they feel like skin-bags […]
Read more "Something to Lose ~ William Doreski"AS MY PHONE LAY DYING My phone lay in its cradle breathing its last Breath as it slowly dies in front of my very Eyes. The incessant little beep enough to drive Some out of their sad little minds but for me I Count the moments until they stop or I just put The damn […]
Read more "5 POEMS ~ Bradford Middleton"
Cacti Fur 