AHM, SARAH
ANTEBI, DEBBI
BLOOM, GARY
CARFAGNO, JOSEPH
CONNAUGHTON, SUE ANN
ELLMAN, NEIL
FARIES, JOANNE
FERDON, JOEL
GOOD, HOWIE
HARTWELL, RICHARD
KANE, J
LARKE, MAUDE
LARKE, MAUDE
MACLEAN, J.S.
MCBRIDE, LAUREN
MCCOOL, MICHAEL
MULLER, ERIC
NGO, DEBORAH
PETRAS, ROBERT
POITEVIN, PEDRO
RAGSDALE, RUSSELL
SAMERKHANOVA, FARIDA
ST. PIERRE, PAT
STALLINGS, BREE
TOMALOFF, DAVID
VALVIS, JAMES
WELSH, JAMES
WILCOX, DANIEL
WISELY, DALE
Russell Ragsdale
a cold, wet army...
dreary footsoldiers of rain
overcome my day
Joel Ferdon
Tiny dancers on
Flatbed wings. Promissory
Notes held up in court.
Dale Wisely
Finally, they decided to stop arguing
about the existence of God and argue instead
about the existence of the upright bass.
James Valvis
Aging: right now you’re as old
as you’ve ever been
and as young as you’ll ever be.
Deborah Ngo
Sons of my sisters
Hold the future in your palms...
Do what we cannot
David Tomaloff
dogs teeth puncture
the skin of my breath—
nothing like love
David Tomaloff
I prayed that night her
father’s shotgun would get
drunk enough to forget my name
David Tomaloff
there is a hole in my heart
where coal is shoveled in—
it’s been raining steady there for days
Howie Good
Between her legs a golden
evening 300,000 flags
fluttering from the windows
Daniel Wilcox
Sliced by the steel plow
Clods glisten in the turned earth
Rows of more pay dirt
Daniel Wilcox
outside our dark tent
cold deepens over my knees--
light inside my head
Daniel Wilcox
A black barred window
Locking out the evened sky
Or rungs to the stars
Joel Ferdon
On the tip of Gabriel’s wings
Painting the sunshine blood orange,
Wafting blackberries from the trees.
Sarah Ahm
Standing on my head
with existence upside down
dirt on foolish crest.
Neil Ellman
Between madness and you
I spin, a gyroscope,
Unable, unwilling to stop.
Neil Ellman
Memories hardened
I am stone
You, the brittle bones of a senseless past
Pat St. Pierre
The red, white and blue
Beckons me to return home.
They cry at my grave.
Robert Petras
New fiance
Same old diamond ring
Heart regifted.
Robert Petras
Sunday morning
Pine boughs droop with snow
Hungover again.
Sue Ann Connaughton
New Year’s resolutions
are framed like trophies
from her unfinished life.
J Kane
Even the knobs on her dresser
can no longer go on
with what they know.
Farida Samerkhanova
Relationship didn’t work
However
It did happen
Farida Samerkhanova
They don’t have to say anything
Because their eyes are talking
And so do their shadows
J.S. MacLean
Boreal wilderness
deep snow 40 below
running water titters
J.S. MacLean
Fox scampers out
snatching the still rolling egg:
the perfect tee shot.
J.S. MacLean
Wildflowers bowed over
sister’s tossed coin
lost in long grass
Debbi Antebi
morning blends into afternoon
evening extends into dawn,
without stopping to ask how my day went.
Bree Stallings
Love, an image dark
before warm light enters room.
Exposed, yes I am.
Pedro Poitevin
A rake collects a pile of purple flowers
the jacaranda scattered on the sidewalk—
A cloud is changing shape, a child is smiling.
Maude Larke
The mode of transportation
makes no difference:
we go in circles all the same.
Gary Bloom
If I could I would have left.
If I could I would
Have never started.
Deborah Ngo
Solitary star
In an Ultramarine sky...
Reminder of God
Lauren McBride
old face
etched with the story
of a lifetime
Lauren McBride
raindrop
on white petal
magnifying God’s artistry
Eric Muller
I have nothing much to say
But I say it anyway – in case
Something more slips in
Eric Muller
Hi hibiscus
Sweet biscuit
For the eye
Eric Muller
The river bed will soon dry out;
but it’s running still
and that’s all that matters now.
Joseph Carfagno
Wild sardines
Tamed
In tin containers
Joseph Carfagno
Alone at the console
No Li Po
To console me
Joseph Carfagno
Sidewalk narcissi:
Faded, elastic-banded
And slated to die.
Maude Larke
Always in autumn the leaves
call out to me insistently -
but I don’t speak plant.
Michael McCool
Warm rain falls on me
in the city even here
it smells like the sea
Joanne Faries
burdened by bills
leaning wooden mailbox yearns
for travel postcards
Joanne Faries
summer rain -
doll on park bench
does not blink
Joanne Faries
hidden evergreen needle
pricks bare feet -
Christmas memory
Deborah Ngo
Cold concrete pavement...
Blind man sits with hands open,
We choose not to see
James Welsh
I have these muses crowding me in,
shouting my thoughts into a thick quiet
as I try to riot with a deflated ballpoint pen.
Richard Hartwell
beautiful serpent
casting gems of sloughed wet skin
sleepy fangs still sting
Richard Hartwell
bulldozed apple orchard
inverted roots seek water
in a cloudless sky
Richard Hartwell
two sterile futures
speckled blue eggs abandoned
bitter hummingbirds