To break down your wallsTo break through to youis the same as trying to reach 100 summitsClimbing and crawling your sidesrocks and dirt crumbling under my weightI try to move your boulders,snap the twigs blocking my way,winds blowing in all directionsrain beating down on my backthen come the blizzards hitting my faceyou try to knock me downyou try to keep me from going upyou don’t … Continue reading To Reach 100 Summits by Cithara Patra
A girl knows what it means to sit prettysqueeze her lips tight and smile wideher face painted pinkneck drenched in perfumeshe’s your perfect little dollyour toy to show off and play withuntil you’re bored so you throw her awayand go for the next doll in your sights A girl knows how to behavekeep up the spirits in the roomwhile hers is falling to piecesshe calms … Continue reading A Girl Knows by Cithara Patra
I lose a little bit of hopeevery day.It feels pretty good. Continue reading As I Get Older by Ron Riekki
Thank God it’s raining.The smokers go outsideand smoke.I wish they’d smoke in their homes.I wish they’d kill their family’s lungsinstead of mine.They smoke in front of my window.I can’t afford air conditioning.I wake up in the night,actually wake upfrom the smoke.Wake up coughing.But tonight it’s raining.They don’t smoke when it rains.Or they do,but not in front of my window.I pray for thunderevery day of my … Continue reading It’s Raining by Ron Riekki
A few weeks later, in the wee hours, you picture the woman of your life flung on her new lover’s DreamCloud scratching his back like a cheetah. She was your high priestess, your Holy Mother. But that ended when she stormed out—after you forgot to mention how brilliant her poem was, when you found comfort spending time on the sofa, and left muddy boot prints on the white hallway runner. … Continue reading A Split from Reality by Dale Champlin
Cotton Candy.Carny Queen.Pops AnotherKetamine.DreamsAbout TheSilver Screen.Gets InsideThe Limousine.Jimmy Dean.Dopamine.Cotton Candy’sTunnel Of Love.CostsTwo Tickets.Rubber Glove.Rubber Boat.Root Beer Float.Maidenhead. Sugar Coat. Gently GentlyDown The Stream.Cotton Candy.Carny Queen.Count Your Blessings.Count The Take.Silver Dollar.Coffee Break.Cotton Candy.Carny Queen.Hear The LionsRoar And Scream. Continue reading Cotton Candy’s Tunnel of Love by Charlie Robert
Time yawns over the exhausted linen,at best a tiresomeacquaintance. An ersatz luxury,specious sensuality,the palm of the dayopens to you. The suggestion isspace is too grandfor error. But Doubt seizes you by the crotch. Sunday equals Monday with matching moods of pianissimoair. Repeating, reciprocating tasksecho. The charge of bright thought falters at the turn. Emerald theories provedust-worthy. One wants an islandlarge enough to think. Continue reading Plenty by William Ray
1. Start with interior,Knowing there’s confirmationOf measurelessness.In essence it’s the nothingnessOf solitude.Night air tinged purple. Move on to superficial wounds—Emotional and physical.By comparison, a spiritual scratch—aGray glimpse of aPasserby on a windy day. A swear, an inconvenience. End with theCountable but infinite,The faces trod, limbs crushed,Burned earth.Crisped brownThat turns you back inside: Vast.Solitary. 2. Take It. Take Putin. Take Xi.Take Trump.Put them in the sea.You made them. … Continue reading Catalogue of Pains by William Ray
skulls and bloodumbilical cords dangling off an old organ in an abandoned sanctuarycold blues moaning on a tessellated floorvirgin whites collapsing on a starving landscapea ruler horizon as straight as the leash on an anteatera banshee at the bedroom window keeping you up at nightpracticing lucid dreaming in the gears of a melting clocka rhinoceros horn’s perfect curvea rhinoceros’ perfect curve of horna stiff moustache … Continue reading Exhuming Dalí by Eric Machan Howd
sometimesthe words that I useare too heavyfor paper andsink beneaththe surface words like beatensuicidal and cutare too dense forfiber to holdtogetherso meanings turn and slump to the emptyside of the pagehide the blurof an empty father punctuate smacks slaps and jabs work-stained hands leaving blacknessand blue behind my eyes Continue reading Bleed Through by Eric Machan Howd
