Poets in this issue — click a name to read
- Anderson, C.b.
- Bainbridge, Jim
- Beech, Aja
- Connaughton, Sue Ann
- Damm, Steve
- Ferdon, Joel
- Fox, Hugh
- Good, Howie
- Greenbaum-maya, Karen
- Hemmings, Kyle
- Higgins, Ed
- Holmes, Tom
- Huffer, Gail
- Iuppa, M.j.
- Lawless, Laura
- Moore, Jennifer
- Murdock, Franklin
- Murphy, Christina
- Ngo, Deborah
- Scanlon, Ray
- Schmidt, Wendy
- Schwartz, Peter
- Scott, Nancy
- Sheahan, Tim
- Tomaloff, David
- Vitoria, Helen
- Wisely, Dale
Gail Huffer
Precious, dazzling love
Each time so fresh and new
Come again, and welcome.
Gail Huffer
Bounce the psychedelic ball
Inhale the joy and wonder
Recalling spent days of youth.
Howie Good
Why hurry to finish?
Heavy-set Russians
linger in the shadows.
Ray Scanlon
In ghetto Walmart
three hundred ceiling spy cams
fail to prevent crime.
David Tomaloff
seven seconds later
the lights came back on�
not that anyone was counting
David Tomaloff
arms stretched out
like oceans�luring
sailors to early graves
Jennifer Moore
Bees slow, wings grow still,
honeyed sunset dripping gold.
Traffic buzzes on
Jennifer Moore
Floating condoms bloom -
white water lilies waiting
for tadpoles in flow
Jennifer Moore
Stripped landscape stretches,
standing stones loom like fingers
thrusting through blanched earth
Aja Beech
The One is the creation
not the creator,
the One is what has become.
Aja Beech
You flow through my art-
eries, bringing in new air
circulating love.
Sue Ann Connaughton
Softly speaking stranger
please intrude
upon my noisy world.
Tom Holmes
Art is born
at the mouth of the cave
within the refuse.
Tom Holmes
The rippled moon
on the lake�s face �
self-contained laughter.
Ed Higgins
My son--
The mirror image
of my faults
Ed Higgins
noon�s yellow sun
line-dried towels
rubbing her shoulders
Joel Ferdon
Tangled before dawn.
Scant curl on my pillow.
We must wake again.
Hugh Fox
Ten androgyneless years, the cancer spreading out
everywhere now, my M.D. wife slowly becoming
the best Czech mom- grandma I ever had.
Christina Murphy
gingko leaves in fall
their golden wrinkled faces
know the loss of spring
Christina Murphy
jealous hearts do know
the strategy of revenge
is brighter than fire
Christina Murphy
the desert heat is
a fierce void of nothingness
veiled by mirages
Tim Sheahan
the sound of silence
like the beating of a drum
echoes in my head
C.B. Anderson
Just because you didn�t pay
to join the legion of the living
doesn�t mean there�s not a cost.
C.B. Anderson
Every manifestation of rain --
snow, sleet, hail, fog, or tears --
is a watered-down version of pain.
Kyle Hemmings
We, the children of canned sunlight,
crumble under makeshift churches,
melt in the lap of our waxen mothers.
Kyle Hemmings
My dead grandmother�s voice.
"A boy once kissed me."
I grew light as a ghost.
Kyle Hemmings
The shrink says:
What�s on your mind?
It�s raining bullshit, I say.
Joel Ferdon
Lipstick print around
My cigarette. Peach blossom
Descent through the wind.
Jim Bainbridge
rumpled sheets
perfumed with odors of love�
visiting newlyweds
M.J. Iuppa
Doubt becomes a broom,
sweeping decisions
into a dusty corner.
M.J. Iuppa
Difficult day
pretending not to notice
sixty candles
M.J. Iuppa
dark earth smells~
soft bed of pine needles,
sound of spring rain, falling.
David Tomaloff
time placed between
two parked cars�
ducking in for a kiss
Karen Greenbaum-Maya
wedding in the park
honeysuckle in their hair
spike heels sunk in dust
Karen Greenbaum-Maya
keeps us in view
young rabbit�s wide eye
coyote scat
Karen Greenbaum-Maya
finches at work
snow-globe of oak branches
dead leaves fall
Franklin Murdock
I like
to shake hands
with strange doors.
Franklin Murdock
Mechanisms
are all that is left of something
once beautiful.
Peter Schwartz
we aged & not like love would�ve
how invalid & wanting
how sadly perfect
Wendy Schmidt
The waters recede.
Our land torn with mud and tears.
Cherished voices stilled.
Dale Wisely
All survivors in the tri-county area
are required to travel on foot to the Stadium
to confide their last secrets to the blind
Laura Lawless
raindrops--
his last kiss
goodbye.
Steve Damm
Timepilot - with no perspective, no horizon is real.
All grows, and rusts in memory fisted controls,
painting a backhand dance in marble.
Nancy Scott
Fragrance of lilac recalled
another place?Montparnasse�
where she fell in love that spring.
Nancy Scott
From the train, he spotted wild iris
and larkspur, red-cheeked girls
toting baskets of peaches.
Nancy Scott
I lay awake picturing you
stooping to cut daffodils
and arranging them in the blue glass.
Helen Vitoria
the storm thickens
I drive to you
till I fall away
Howie Good
A crumpled napkin
was all Degas needed
to do a sky.
Deborah Ngo
Flames destroyed all
Memories now burnt and gone...
Her lips pyro red
Steve Damm
These fences I am hopping
hold surprise in their signs.
I reckon no consequence.