Mark imileski I was told truth is the oakthat holds its leaves each winter. A promisedelayed. As it turns out, I forgetthe rules. I never can know them. This one is anothermask for doubt. This one is the coverfor an empty bed. This one is the sheet drawn back—the old clothes gathered in the cornersof […]
Luke Carmichael Valmadrid Your words have faded, once perchedbetween the lines, now aloft in eddiesmore erstwhile than eccentric, that distortthe shape of sadness that hangs overmore than it looms. Your shadowhas lengthened, once tailored to an acerbic wit,now high off karmic eutrophy, spinsredbud stories into redwood sagasthat in their grandeur still cannot hidethe kinds of […]
Claudine Guertin-Ceric She’d only meant to ride the elevator down to collect the mail. Now she was trapped in it. Contained by sleek, unclimbable metal walls, a round chrome rail that raced around the space to nowhere, a dark touchscreen panel of buttonless buttons, and underneath her, the same grey-veined carrara marble floor that lined […]
merri andrew My plan for marriagewas couragethe way a planelands by sinkingthen with a rush of strengthflexes to kiss the tarmacas an equal a drama soon forgottenas we wait to seewhose luggage is whoselooping round the lucky horseshoemagnet pull of what will emergeand what must be swallowed againwhole but when I’m nearly asleepand my hand […]
merri andrew He tucks the $5 into his sockand looks up at my babysays When my son was a babyI used to sit up all nightto make sure he was breathing WHERE IS HE NOW?I am screamingin my headWHERE IS HE NOW?he is also screamingin his headmaybe With practice we canlisten past the screaming Yes, […]
Claire heinzerling the DJ wants us to do the cha cha slide.the DJ wants our claps our stomps our“cha cha real smooth”—the DJasks us to give breath to death andbreathe seething into laughter and standa couple feet apart on the laminatedance floor and turn our insides intoour outsides. the DJ would like us toshout our […]
Marcella eve at dawn, a womandrags herself through cobbled alleyswailing, and then beginsover a plate of dry eggsto speak and from the doorway of a key shop, a manwith no teeth yells at a plazaof tables and chairs, and smokes so mucha rain-cloud forms over Los Angeles and the drinking fountain in the plaza becomesa […]
Daniel clark This is how… We read the signs. We readthe gaps around the signsthat said STOP. We filled in forgiveness. We sawourselves inside the bottle. We splashedwater on our faces but the water was wineand our faces grapescrushed into bottlesin crates in lorriesin toddlers’ hands. We racedaround the plastic track. We smashedglass to pass […]
Ella rous Seagulls prefer to nest by open water, but they’ll make doif they must. This bathroom, sinking into the foundation aslittle green plants force their way through the grout, will do.It will do, even once we’ve outgrown & left it, the shivering husksof our shadows peeled away and left to drown in Grandma’s clawfoot […]
Joseph M. Gant New Format paperback and needledisccherished media–bone dust and broken saucers Cavernous dentist cut by silvered glassancient mouth of rot;pulls the roots from memory Joseph M Gant is a New Jersey born open source software enthusiast, data hoarder, technical writer, and author of the poetry collections: Zero Divsion and Exiled From Stars with […]