Poets in this issue — click a name to read
- Adukuri, Jagannath Rao
- Agarwal, Prateek
- Brasseur, Jean
- Bryan, Tanya
- Cook, Corey
- Corjescu, Dan
- Da Vinci, Gia
- Drury, Ivo
- Edwards, David
- Evans, Lee
- Fleming, Rory
- Grant, Todd
- Hart, Piorre
- Howell, Robert
- Hunter, Linda
- Johnson, Chris
- Joo, Jungmin
- Joy, Bernard
- Koji, William F.
- Leo, Jill
- Lin, Sen
- M. Rizal, Kimberly
- Maeder, Emily
- Manus, Grady
- Mcgavock, Ie
- Middleton, Kaylyn
- Neukirch, Colin
- Pereira, Maricarmen
- Rajamanickam, Vishnu
- Robbins, Doug
- Samuelson, Audrey
- Tustin, John
- Wolfe, Mitchell
Corey Cook
phone rings as Dad’s name
scrolls across caller ID -
gone two years today
Corey Cook
divorced for days now -
skin on my ring finger still
indented and smooth
Gia Da Vinci
There’s a fine line
between sated and starving.
I’m always dancing in between.
Ivo Drury
rain, tumultuous
earthworms flee the saturated soil
to expire on the desert of asphalt
Ivo Drury
respecting the right side
between mentor
and tormentor
David Edwards
The ocean
most uncertain
of plateaus
Vishnu Rajamanickam
A salty tear rolled
To the mouth’s crevice
And became scarlet.
Piorre Hart
I decide to re-open
The book of my life
It opens to the page marked present
Piorre Hart
Lashing waves cut through rocks
Water reigns
Conquest of stone
William F. Koji
Spring in the Mojave
Wild flowers cover the desert
Joshua’s bloom
Jean Brasseur
steel box of memories
our soundtrack plays endlessly
to ghosts of dead flowers
Tanya Bryan
so then we are no longer friends
but strangers who once knew
each other’s secrets
Chris Johnson
moment by moment
encompassed, encompassing
all blooming anew
Chris Johnson
we shared stories bold
worthless hours transmuted
refined into gold
Grady Manus
frost covers the earth
a lady draped in fine lace
beautiful and cold
Ie Mcgavock
peony blossoms
battered by rain
athletes at race end
Ie Mcgavock
man manages the land
ruled by mountains and rivers
indifferent to man
Ie Mcgavock
freshets of images
from drifts of dream
dried up in the morning light
Doug Robbins
The Joker was the fool.
He was her jester
who melted in her hands like chocolate in the sun.
Kaylyn Middleton
salt animal blazes through
a fevered universe, listening
for you in the ghostly night
Jagannath Rao Adukuri
The curtains will fall for you
Letting in sun rays holding dust atoms.
We are dust , atoms and swirling.
Jagannath Rao Adukuri
They sit still in shadows and evenings.
They stay huddled together on the shore
For boat and togetherness.
Kaylyn Middleton
Workers toiled all night
Still they could not heave the moon
Back into its sky
John Tustin
The faucet drip-drips
The clock goes on tick-tocking
I wait for knowledge
John Tustin
Scars of distant years
And scars of the nearer ones
Itch differently
John Tustin
First time I saw you
My eyes, my heart were set afire
Your eyes fanned those flames
Audrey Samuelson
With her fake fur coat and high heels
She didn’t have to say anything
I knew what she was selling
Rory Fleming
Monks lie to husbands
Mostly when they are husbands
Monks don’t have husbands
Mitchell Wolfe
A slip of the tongue
After midnight is common
Bottles contain ends
Bernard Joy
we almost know the world, each day,
is ready to burst into apple blossom; not waiting,
nor remembering, we keen, all spring, our sense of scent
Colin Neukirch
The rails fly under me,
My view from the box car
A brown and blue blur.
Sen Lin
Here’s a bachelor’s degree,
Graduation cap and gown.
But the future frightens me.
Robert Howell
All
Anyone remembers
Is the fall
Linda Hunter
The smell of honey suckles in the air.
I am sunbathing from the warmth of the sun.
Listening to children play from afar.
Dan Corjescu
Old lusts osseous under forgotten carpets
blue wind in a terracotta bowl
your hands will never touch that door knob again
Todd Grant
an epitaph in the sand
the words I should have said
while she was alive
Todd Grant
a milksnake slithers
across a sunbaked highway
Jim Morrison writes another poem
Todd Grant
evening rain
her side of the closet
is bare
Emily Maeder
Slow day at the snow cone stand
Toned old men in spandex run along the tide
Maybe I’ll take up the cello
Audrey Samuelson
Stirred from slumber
By the muffled melody
Of motel love making
Kimberly M. Rizal
Star-sprinkled heaven
So free and far above me
Still I try to reach.
Kimberly M. Rizal
Dawn has come at last
Peeking over horizons
Fair light in the sky.
Kimberly M. Rizal
Crystal comets graze
Speed of light, ranging billow
Silver and blue dust.
Jungmin Joo
this place I linger
killing time
until it kills me
Jungmin Joo
laughter
a survival mechanism
for undying pain in my heart
Prateek Agarwal
I’d abandon the luminance,
For the illuminating dark of the Moon,
For its ungenerous glow.
Maricarmen Pereira
I never said we’d be perfect,
But the picture of you and I,
Is a shot I’d take.
Audrey Samuelson
The gaudy neon motel sign
Serves as a kitschy lighthouse
For droopy-eyed motorists
Lee Evans
Car’s roof ripped off
Cirrus brightens my bald head
Sunset drives home
Jill Leo
possibilities
glittering above my head
shattered at my feet