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"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"Philip Schaeffer texts Tasia: I told him to tether his dog to the back bumper of my truck, so he did. Then the four of us went upstairs to my apartment, at Woodleaf, had a drink and recapped our weekend. I should have said, “Bring your dog up.” I didn’t think, yeah, your pet’s out […]
Read more "3 POEMS – Peter Mladinic"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"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"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"
Cacti Fur 