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Issue 5

POETS

ALLGEIER, JACOB
AMBOS, EMMA
ANDERSON, C.B.
ANTEBI, DEBBI
ARNER, JUDITH
BAUER, GERALD
BICKLEY, SARA
CHATHAM, JOSEPH
DAVID, INGRID
DETTMAR, BENJAMIN
ELLMAN, NEIL
FERDON, JOEL
FLANDERS, RHETA
GIBSON, RAYMOND
HENDRICKSON, TYLER
HOLMES, TOM
IUPPA, M.J.
KELLER, CHRISTOPHER
KOWALCZYK, JAMES
MACLEAN, J.S.
MYERS, SPENCER
NESTEROVA, YULIYA
NGO, DEBORAH
SCANLON, RAY
SCOTT, NANCY
STONE, ANDREW
STREUR, RUSSELL
SWARTZ, CHRISTOPHER J.
TRUNCALE, JOSEPH
VAN RHOADS, SHEA
WARD, ANTHONY
WHITMAN, NEAL

Rheta Flanders



The wind from a window
A hand over the divider, caressing
On the open highway




Rheta Flanders



Fresh paint, new drapes
Vacuuming the hall
Mother is coming




Debbi Antebi



looking at the old family photos,
she tries to catch memories
with a butterfly net




Yuliya Nesterova



No, Baby! Don’t
French-kiss the world
one socket at a time.




Jacob Allgeier



The only red light I saw
Was the beeping monitor
Cursing at me in disgust




Sara Bickley



unbloody (pain left behind)
sacrifice (love snatched up
to heaven, to here)




Neal Whitman



How to remember
to work on
my forgetfulness?




Neil Ellman



The teacher said, "Write what you know."
So I did
and a blank page stared back at me.




Neil Ellman



My words like feathers
brush against the sky
before they fall to silent earth.




Neil Ellman



Listen to its wings, listen.
It speaks just enough of poetry
to write a tercet for its feathered flight.




J.S. MacLean



I fear that
they engineered a mouse
unafraid of any cat.




J.S. MacLean



Fleeting eye contact –
Grizzly down the trail,
strangers across the floor




Joel Ferdon



Rear differential breaks
Like a womb before departure.
So much beautiful sorrow.




Joel Ferdon



Vishnu paid the bills
This month. It took a god
For me to make rent.




Ray Scanlon



Shrine at the road’s edge:
not so invulnerable,
teens crash and perish.




Nancy Scott



I stayed with the man
who’s asking the waiter
to pack up the leftover Dim Sum.




Nancy Scott



As I step into the lake,
chilled water curls around
my ankles like a serpent.




Nancy Scott



His arms, dark wings, around me,
cheek against my sun-bleached hair
in the familiar way of lovers.




Ingrid David



silver streaks from the sky
plants wiggle in delight
humans sigh at the sight




Ingrid David



purpose walks its path
completely oblivious
miss it all together




Joseph Truncale



Frosted morning,
Red and gold leaves on path,
Beauty of fall.




Joseph Truncale



Beautiful snow,
Deep inside the woods,
A mysterious silence.




Shea Van Rhoads



A hirsute man in a slovenly hovel:
all his plans
involve a shovel.




Deborah Ngo



Her pretty brown eyes,
moonlit pools filled to the brim...
trickling down slowly




C.B. Anderson



Three wishes I have:
two bodies, one heart,
and zero regrets.




C.B. Anderson



Sometimes, my former friend,
sincere apologies
are simply not enough.




Christopher Keller



If I were to fall,
I’d fall a proton; avoid
Negative charges.




Christopher Keller



The truth of a drip dries harder and faster than
the ink that stains it; every paper-scrawl
seals emotions permanent: write what is holy.




Debbi Antebi



construction noise creeps into my study,
carelessly crushing
well-crafted thoughts




Raymond Gibson



we broke
the dawn & night keeps
falling




Debbi Antebi



renovated library—
the smell of old books
filling freshly-painted cubicles




Raymond Gibson



hell is all heat
heaven all light
this life smoke




Spencer Myers



Even warts
become endearing
when worn for long enough.




Andrew Stone



Bold bruises color my girl’s
calves, thighs, arms, eyes.
Did I paint her plastic flesh?




M.J. Iuppa



Mother, clever culprit,
She’s the one who made us
This way she lives on, forever and ever




M.J. Iuppa



Fistful of pennies dropped
fast into a tempered glass
jar-- saved thunder




Christopher J. Swartz



The earth has eaten the stone, and the winds
have slowly turned slate to chalk. Where once
gravestones stood, a colony of ants has spawned.




Benjamin Dettmar



Two-hands too-much to contain
The rice grain mote
Of our insanity




Andrew Stone



Esther mutilated self
with insecurities
until they knotted her noose.




Sara Bickley



Google: barfly adverb
I was the first one to see it,
I honestly believed.




Judith Arner



he loves me
but how does a daisy know
and why must I tear it apart to get the message




Tom Holmes



Remnants of the first sad story –
a black bear’s white teeth
& infant buried in a pit.




Tom Holmes



Seagulls a thousand
miles in, what do they think
McDonald’s is – food?




Joseph Chatham



here we are, a lifetime gone
breathing heavy now in the twilight
and yet still the spark beckons




Russell Streur



Her robe falls open
One hundred years of beauty
Moonlight on her breast




James Kowalczyk



his muscular horn
wrestled a robust triplet
we all won the match




Anthony Ward



defiant drinker
his albumen eyes turned yolk
running down his cheek




Tyler Hendrickson



you left me
I whispered to the air,
you left me




Emma Ambos



Down by the corner of the salty brine
the sand-whistlers
take what’s rightfully theirs.




Gerald Bauer



Prairie horizon
blends into blue sky.
Time and eternity meet.







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