Issue 57

Sydney McQuoid

rain cascades through my veins thumbs turn green spring blooms feed amity

Ralph Carusillo

Imagination Oxygen of creation Our breath poetic

Bruce Heap

We sit the sea and I listening for silences between the crashing waves.

Laura McCorry

The rain beats outside falling faster than the ground can absorb it, as though it would cleanse us.

Sara Wilhoite-Mathews

birds flee before a storm the lightning stabs a lighthouse flashes

Stephen Curro

fresh air new cherry blossoms soft as silk

Isaac Eustice

Hibiscus flower A glass mouth pouring petals Old seltzer bottle

Laurie Decker

Gentle breezes carry sweet perfume Across the flowery meadows, beyond Bees float amongst the blooms

Ray Spitzenberger

wren nest each hatchling a huge gaping mouth Mom gone to get groceries

Brett Abrahamsen

Dismal apathy erases The triumph of life There is no escape

Gail Greenwood

young doe in the yard-- a sprig of dead leaves for an earring

Shasta Hatter

Father's mortality set on your shoulders only a phone line to help

David Tate

Carpets of bluebells mirroring the sky Tightly bunched buttercups aping sol Dandelion seed heads are candyfloss clouds

Alvin Johnson

Bedrock faith, like ancient olive trees in rocky and dry lands.

Bruce Levine

Flying on a north wind Leaves of grass restore Ancient tapestries of forever

Wendy A. Miller

Mother's Day Hike with those I love Tromp through mud, teeter on tree roots Breath-stealing view, joy in the journey

Debbie Walker-Lass

Make a list of wonder Blue skies, quiet days Melting into each other

Anthony Ray

you speak in riddles I answer in a drunk slur neither is correct

Alan Meyrowitz

Memories fade, some abruptly as if God flips a switch when pain of loss too great to bear

Ann Boaden

"Poetry is never safe--just necessary" old professor, shrimp-curled into his body, his spaced, liturgical breaths.

Sarah Deranleau

Ghosts drift aimlessly among this field of ruins. Vacant eyes can't connect.

Jaya Avendel

Electrified moon rays Play havoc with my heart I supernova into a star.

Rani Jayakumar

we are here together each captive to her own mind one landscape, four prisons

Kristin Lawrence

scant kids test hallways eyes inquiring aloft masks ravenous crows land

KB Ballentine

Mud pools the yard, grass defeated. A squirrel whiskers the limb of an oak, flings itself into the gray void.

JR Vork

yellow daffodils my family on the road to Newport blooms

Kevin Glowacki

the lazy river converses with mountain peaks eloquent silence

Mullins Ian

sun-dripped ice-cream pooling on the floor; a little boy dips a toe

Carrie Polega

Crying floorboards against silence weight of pondering shoes library stacks hold their breath

Eliot Kurfman

kale flower shuns market shelf sweet and bright

John Hansen

Last year's thoughts linger on the hem of your maroon dress.

Patricia Pella

tidal rhythms conducted by the wind seagulls wave harmony

David Anthony Sam

The skip stone disappears into the current. Concentric rings radiate from absence. My hand awakens to what it has done.

Rachel Zempel

moonlight hit her hair like a halo igniting amid the darkness

DJ Tyrer

Grey-brown sea churns White foam frosting waves Gull cries on breeze

Jennifer Smith

Hands like a desert at noon Callouses on Egyptian sheets Touchless year finds its oasis

Joseph Pete

Steelworkers weary in the shift's ashes. Neon diners beckon; Koz beelines home. Mill furnace burns on. Molten handcuffs.

Rebecca Pyne

Ghost words, Rumors of things never said - a skewed palimpsest of meaning

Robert Hunt

breeze carries soothing tune from jaunty youth shut-in soul vitalized

Robert Beveridge

liquid sky decanting the clouds into a martini glass

D. Ryan

a flash of lightning night loses its dark cover on the river bed

J.E. Seuk

Kicked dog still dashing towards the dinner bell

Bre Davis

Sorrows healed Finding my feet Toeing old ground

Nells Wasilewski

chirpy birds and crickets breeze evokes rustling leaves sunset harmony

Thorwald Hansen

Life, the whetstone sharpens some and some wears down.

M. E. Murray

Luminescent sphere suspended by gravity brightens our bleak lives.

Melissa Laussmann

weaving woman drops her needle -white pine

April Pitts

Harvest time-- field mice and crows stalk the newly risen corn.

Corey Cook

in the barn bird nest fraught with horse hair stalls long empty

Mary Gunn

the different ways we fold our ballot papers -- colorful drawings