Desideratum Roget spent a lifetime in pursuit of the right words. Unrelenting, obsessed with nuance and symmetry, from his methodical eloquence he birthed the thesaurus. I lack his singularity, living instead in surges of passion, volcanic eruptions of words: intermittent bursts of dangerous brilliance, more often blown smoke. But this I share with Roget – […]
Read more "2 poems by Jamez Terry"A Warning Label for Life Drowsy amid dawn, I brush my teeth and shower with city-issued disinfection byproducts that may cause cancer. Abluted in the chromium-6, lead, and other contaminants, I call myself clean. Soft scrambled eggs go down my gullet with their heavy metals, toasted and buttered carcinogens soon follow. Water sends a vitamin […]
Read more "A WARNING LABEL FOR LIFE ~ BOB MCNEIL"Christmas in July
Read more "Dance of the Butterflies ~ Jeff Lewis"Grave What I’m Talking About When I Talk About Home The neighbor’s water sprinklers go off synched to my bladder at four am and I muscle memory my uncounted steps from four- blanket cocoon to streetlamp-lit bathroom as mattress-groans signal my partner turns in preparation anticipation expectation to pull me in when I sink back […]
Read more "2 POEMS by Amy Marques"Once Told Once I told my partner that I do my best writing under the cover of night, because the twinkling stars shining through my bedroom window, straining to be seen against suburban streetlights, were there to cheer me on. In truth, it’s the only time I have to ruminate on everything I’ve ever said, […]
Read more "3 poems by Ashley Haberberger"You Called It Amateur You sat at the end of the long table, spine slouched in triumph, flicking through the workshop packet like it was catalog junk mail— and when you landed on her poem, the one about the jar of buttons she found in her dead mother’s drawer, you smiled that lazy, sideways smile, […]
Read more "JEFF TOBIN ~ You Called It Amateur"My Place In The Garden Can’t out-beauty the rose – have to out-think it. It may be a luscious crimson, but I can remember who won the Super Bowl in 1984. What does a rose know of football? Its scent may rival a Paris parfumerie but it can’t size up its options, make a decision […]
Read more "JOHN GREY ~ My Place In The Garden"Real Hair The black man who stopped, said “Forgive me, but you have real hair I don’t see that often & it’s beautiful” I had it up in twin tails, how I learned to wear my mask, so the loops would go over my hair & not my ears didn’t say it till he saw it from the […]
Read more "Storm Ainsely ~ REAL HAIR"Static I tried to explain I have only lived in flat places where walking is easy I suggested he walk our Alps-like neighborhood while I stay home and make notes in my new journal with the cover of a woman’s head with a plant growing out of the top then I saw the back of […]
Read more "SUSAN SHEA ~ STATIC"Everyone’s an Amoeba The sky is like a Petri dish outside my window & everyone’s an amoeba – they come & go like pulsating blobs before my eyes, microscopic minions locked in their two-bit sooner-forgotten-than-remembered lives, as they strive to divide & reproduce like colored honeycombs on slides, lost to themselves & their many lies […]
Read more "Christopher Heise ~ Everyone’s an Amoeba"
Cacti Fur 