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Issue 34

POETS

ARGUELLES , JOSE
BARSKI, ELLEN
BASDEN, BARRY
BATES, RODERICK
BOUTELIER, STEFANI
CAMPBELL, ROBYN
CAMPHAUSEN, ASHLEY
CASTILLO STREET, SUSAN
CHAN, ANNA
CLARK, TIFFANY
COREY, BETTY
CRUPI, BRANDON
CURTIS, ANNE
DAVIS, MIKAYLA
DONOVAN, DEVIN
ELFORD, PATRICIA ANNE
EMMERICK, JASMYNE
EVANS, MARK
FALKENBURG, CHARLEY
GUTHRIE, J-MAG
HOWARD, DIANA
KARNES-FANNIN, CARRIE
KAZAN, LORRIE
LEE, DEBORAH
LYTTON, GAVIN
MARIE, SUSAN
MCCORMAC, PHILIP
MCFADDEN, JAMES
MELTON, BILL
NEUFARTH HOWARD, SUE
NORDGREN, MARYJANE
RISVOLD, FRIEDA
RUSSELL, MARTHA
SCHAFER, SUANNE
SHATSKY, SHEREE
SHREVE, HEATHER
SUMMERLIN, CINDI
TOWELL, LAVAUGHN
VIENTO, WANDA
VITI, LYNNE
WARNER, EVERETT
WHITE, JERRY
WILDHOOD, MEGAN

J-Mag Guthrie



Looking Back

Emptied of sorrow,
dry eyes scoured by grieving
gaze into the past.




Susan Castillo Street



In midwinter blue
Wood-burner glows and flickers
Flaming eye of light.




Carrie Karnes-Fannin



Wrinkled, closed-faced scholars
scuff, scuff, scuff along the quad,
bitter joe in hand.




Charley Falkenburg



Greasy streets, boiling and fierce
Time goes on, they pulse and crack,
From secrets, from pain that we can’t face




Patricia Anne Elford



My huge Lip Smacker, uncapped, prods memory.
My pink gloss, blotted, kisses Kleenex.
Someone essential is missing.




Suanne Schafer



My tongue wanders through
The cavern of your ear. Dizzy,
You spin into my arms.




Devin Donovan



A couple discusses their options
Fifty feet from the hospital entrance
Where the staff are on a smoke break.




Ashley Camphausen



We bathed our bare feet
In Barefoot Pinot and smashed
The bottle on dry concrete.




Megan Wildhood



Laundry

they plan it the night before
in the hamper: how to flee
their partners in the whirling cave of heat




Jose Arguelles



I’ve fallen through my discord
My spirit is replete
Many times before I’ve fallen so damn deep




Deborah Lee



Foreplay is forgotten.
Why bother? Toes
recoil with haste.




Stefani Boutelier



autumn prefaces the bitterness
hiccups in the bodies of water subside
winter, cocooned in death and life




Jerry White



High in the weave of sun-topped leaves
the five-color bird gargles brightly,
staying slightly out of sight.




Tiffany Clark



Love induced dreams
inebriating throughout the night
sobering with the first morning breath




Philip McCormac



The soldiers make no bones
About their lust that hangs like dust
In the heavy air




Jasmyne Emmerick



Night rolling thunder,
The sky bursts in flashing lights --
Raindrop tears appear.




Jasmyne Emmerick



Autumn’s requisite --
Cascaded senescent leaves;
Bare beauty revealed




Jasmyne Emmerick



The rising dawn crest,
Relieves the insomniac
Of ardent mirage




Diana Howard



I watch the butterfly land,
realizing what it already knows,
that this moment is all we have.




Jose Arguelles



A heart set upon forgiveness
As it breaks and breaks and breaks
It’s tired chains upon the rocks




Lorrie Kazan



They lied about the least of things,
Until one night, punchdrunk,
Their tongues dissolved like rain.




Mikayla Davis



Children are bused into the sewers
at night wrapped in scarves of frayed
nooses made from lipstick stained collars.




Barry Basden



I try to picture what it was
she saw in those final days,
after she could no longer read.




Ellen Barski



Empty bottles of rum hidden
under the house, secret
stashed away broken promises




Robyn Campbell



Stallions clash in battle
the sovereign one wins
King of his pasture




Lavaughn Towell



Slumbering dogs
Remind me that
Bliss exists.




Gavin Lytton



as we come together I come undone
the undressing of an amateur ventriloquist
with what is gained by the removal




Lynne Viti



Snow-crusted ground warms
Poppy seeds scattered and raked,
Promise of red blooms.




Lynne Viti



Gull drops cracked conch shell,
empty,raggedy discard
-- My trophy today.




Mark Evans



Gray skies laced with limbs
Winter trees gnarled old men
Spring leaps through their nets




Betty Corey



broken heroes coming home
warfare continues
blood flows on desert sands




Sue Neufarth Howard



truck’s porker spill
pigs on the run
recapture sty-mied




Wanda Viento



Skyward reaching beech
With tributary arms
Dancing the winter’s waltz




Heather Shreve



My quill gives birth to sound,
Life springs forth on blank pages,
New breath to words yet found.




Heather Shreve



Some words sparkle, so we look up,
reach up- like a skyscraper at night
penetrating the shadows of humanity.




Susan Marie



Bones emitting truth
stack, one atop another
collocating flies.




Sheree Shatsky



She slips across the grass
A ruffle of a girl
Her shoes emerald like the zoysia.




James McFadden



Swim back to sleep without disturbing
the water. Listen for the lone flute.
Hang the coat there.




Bill Melton



Towering church spire
Slices through the drifting fog
Patter of raindrops




Martha Russell



Love reaches out
rejection hits hard
love recoils ready to strike




Frieda Risvold



where is my future -
seems like any place but here
yet here my heart is.




Brandon Crupi



It’ll be worthwhile though,
all of this spinning in circles.
We need many more revolutions.




MaryJane Nordgren



watching friends emerge
from grieving to laughter
monarch of resilience




Cindi Summerlin



Silently the waves push through
Eternity, churning up memories
And dreams long forgotten.




Anna Chan



I’m held spellbound by the strange magic
Come alive during the ten minutes
Of dusk in this Arizona desert.




Anne Curtis



Meadowlark on an old fence post;
Spinning spokes spill
Shadows in the sun.




Anne Curtis



August makes six weeks
Ginger mare with bandaged leg
Boredom in her eyes.




Roderick Bates



Seasons changed last night.
I hear trucks grind slow uphill,
wet sounds damped by snow.




Everett Warner



Take this fractured self
I’ll feed you
make me something whole




Frieda Risvold



autumn breezes blow
tossing leaves on arid ground
to crunch before rain







© Copyright 2020; Glenn Lyvers; Prolific Press Inc. All Rights Reserved.