Vacation by William Aarnes Mouse droppings along the kitchen counter the morning you’re leaving your house vacant for a month. A flight to catch so nothing to do but wipe the counter and forget the chore you’ll find waiting the night your return. ### William Aarnes teaches English at Furman. He has two collections of […]
addio! by Denis Joe
addio! by Denis Joe Farewell: the rain trickles like candlewax when the flame is snuffed out by that last gasp of air and the world is static and hearts cease their music. You were a poem: a ballad; a sonnet. Now an elegy. ### Denis Joe writes a blog about poetry Talking Verse, and he […]
Darque Doll by Crystal Lane Swift
Darque Doll By, Crystal Lane Swift Cradling her wounds she thought back Pressed to the ground He had stolen her perfection Once bright white porcelain and pure She was now broken and scarred She did the only thing she could think to do Though soaked in her own blood She threaded her needle with […]
a young dog’s howl in the wind by Ian MacMenamin
waves
american trains
running through
Yin & Yang by Jennifer-Crystal Johnson
Yin & Yang by Jennifer-Crystal Johnson We’re a myriad of thoughts In a kaleidoscope of dreams And everything seems real But nothing’s what it seems The evil that we do Is for the good of all we know And when there’s no evil left Then there’s nowhere left to go (Napkin Poetry, Broken Publications, 2010) […]
Silence of the Seabirds by Emeniano Acain Somoza, Jr.
Silence of the Seabirds by Emeniano Acain Somoza, Jr. Perhaps we were born into water We skim bodies with our eyes Close as a kiss to the glass heart Of these protean seas We have nothing. But, wings, Bearing our weight, they wear out So soon our dreams wither Like dead leaves drowning in […]
Sparkles with Annie by Chris Lawrence
Chris Lawrence born 64, lives in an English seaside town of West Kirby writes poetry and stories his most recent publication was in Zygote In My Coffee he can be reached on Twitter @clawfish
Unemployment by Jan Marquart
Jan Marquart is a licensed Clinical Social Worker who specializes in family counseling. She has a bachelors degree in Philosophy from the University of California/Santa Cruz and a master’s degree in Social Work from San Jose State University. A member of the New Mexico Book Association, National Writers Union, and the National Association of Social Workers, Jan has authored eight books, two booklets, written articles for local papers and has written more than 88 journals.
Tin Heart by Karen Sideris
Tin Heart By Karen Sideris Big red “K” Tin heart Thanks for the keychain. Do you like it? I thought you would. She is proud. But why? The ugliest thing I’ve ever seen Selected just for me, this loud strange trinket Clatters into the drawer of birthday gifts Forgotten. Next year no gift comes No […]
Heterophemize by Kevin Brown
Heterophemize by Kevin Brown Heterophemize v. — to say something different from what you mean to say You are my noun, I set out to say, my person, place, and thing, but I verbed instead, stammered out adjective after adjective, but spoke so adverbly you exclamated. I thought we were gerunding well, but you saw […]
You and I in the furnace by Viplob Pratik
You and I in the furnace by Viplob Pratik Just as the fire rages in the furnace when the wind rushes through the stoker you are blowing your breath all over the coals of my anxieties and the embers of my disorders are alight As the hammer dipping into water, heating up in flames beats […]
A Letter along the Way by Xiwen Mai
A Letter along the Way by Xiwen Mai Dearest, tell me where the cicadas have gone. Didn’t summer only exist in the past? For I see myself sitting at the window years ago, in the wild songs of cicadas about how they had waited life long to find the summer unbearable, Nanjing’s summer hot as […]
In Ohio by Grace Curtis
In Ohio by Grace Curtis One either believes in God or one probably really is going to hell and Ohioans know the difference, because like the small seeds in her brown fields, you are below the surface yet visible, corn hands waving as relatives stand near to measure your success, to see where you are […]
Consider This by Henry L. Mortimer Jr.
Consider This by Henry L. Mortimer Jr. Some animal, some low beast has done me a favor: it tipped over the trash can in the alley early this morning, scattering the contents, everything — brown banana peels, wads of Kleenex, open soiled diapers, moldy carrots, chicken bones and greasy aluminum foil, gum, dental floss, a […]
A Pause of Thought by Christina Rossetti
A Pause of Thought by Christina Rossetti I looked for that which is not, nor can be, And hope deferred made my heart sick in truth: But years must pass before a hope of youth Is resigned utterly. I watched and waited with a steadfast will: And though the object seemed to flee away That […]