Issue 7

Maude Larke

He’s an excellent violist, but, so odd, he has harmonium feet.

John Tustin

Johnny at the door Hears our bedroom argument Outside, rain in sheets

John Tustin

You stand in the dark You shine against a fat moon That tells us – "begin"

Yuliya Nesterova

Century-old tree ground in a printer: page half-filled.

Garrin Riggin

The painter to the poet - ’With so many colors, how do you ever choose’?

Andy Simmons

I drive with my eyes on it: The sweet ladybug trying to fly off my dusty dashboard.

Jean Brasseur

lying seductively in a snowy field my missing glove

Ross Plovnick

if we could choose our parents when we’re young enough to dream in every color

Bernard Joy

your long history of hope, elegised, how the sun spreads out between the trees

Timothy Pilgrim

No more desert, love grows as you make deep grooves with your sharp hooves.

J.S. MacLean

A foot stamps so the chaff whispers with nightcrawlers

J.S. MacLean

return to Kenya tears on a mother’s breast home into the rift

Tyler Hendrickson

I fell into my shadow crumbling at the edge of what I knew possible

Garrin Riggin

She liked small boxes. Empty inside, she sometimes painted them.

Joseph Truncale

Bursting colors, An artists’s dream, Fall trees.

Mickey Murphy

The moon’s ascension Quiet whispers of stories Shadows swirl in smoke.

JC Crumpton

help us, save us, succor us we screamed and we screamed. receding in the distance.

Martha Christina

Small stars of Bethlehem spike their way through dirt the color of Franciscan robes.

Martha Christina

When it sings, even the hermit thrush calls another’s name.

Martha Christina

Unseasonable cotton against corduroy and wool, bird song against snow.

Victoria Neff

driving through the prairie, you saw a stove. ’free range’ it said.

John Hayes

snow flakes swirl waves crash on a silent silhouetted shore

Rickey Marshall

At last at last apples ripen in Fall in Love

James Minard

The cricket chorus Slowly fading one by one: Summer to Autumn.

Connor Cook

Dew clings to grass like a tired climber to a precipice: slowly...slipping away.

Ray Succre

Eyes wet behind curls of hair? I am recompense. Eyes set amid holes of bone.

Neal Whitman

time to lie down a slice of silence in the hush of dusk

Ingrid David

Beware the power of your voice Hurtful words that tumble out Forever in the universe

Nina Larsen

He kissed me and the sea was black – Small sparks, fluorescent jellyfish, a starfish reaching for his feet.

GB Romo

In the desert night, the moon stalks the dark side of my mind.

Michael Ratcliffe

She turned and kissed me softly. I could not force my mind to remain within the dream.

Stephen Leslie

After sinking a hole in one Then he sinks another Dentist drill

Christopher Keller

You say You love me while I curse all Creation – You say it again.

Debbi Antebi

the drip drip drip of the water— the light footsteps of time quickly trickling away

Sean Korsgaard

If you must choose to Cultivate Mind, Body, and Soul Always choose the soul.

DL Mullan

round dark silhouette cocooned velvet now spreads free as spring warms the blooms

Wayne Scheer

Autumn Jackson Pollack dabbing color On drab a canvas.

Nathan Lipps

Dead embers lie down Filling up a Charnel house And men drink fire

VISHNU RAJAMANICKAM

Dew on the leaf Slips down Loses identity

Kevin Ridgeway

Avocados line this cemetery Of crumbs of leaf and stem Together in nature’s dry soup

Charles Stephenson

The profit lies in the side work. They brew stimulants. They call it fair trade.

Elliot Ross

birdcages, rib-cages dried beaks and telephone bills-- carrion luggage

Lauren Clarke

I smell your scent In the middle of the city street And forget that you are gone.

Brian Klonoski

The sky bleeds as wild horses run by and I stand alone and cry.

Warren Gotham

Melting candle, light Two flowing heartbeats, dark night Cool to the touch, dawn

Todd Grant

secrets revealed heated stars tremble two tongues meet

Heather Harris

The instinct of the rolled potato bug the mouse playing dead under cat claws is in you, to withstand and survive

Wendy Schmidt

Inexperienced in love, she wore her heart on her sleeve. He left a permanent mark.

Jack Hodil

The serial killer has no regrets. He has never believed in karma, only the people.