Poets in this issue — click a name to read
- Andersen, Kevin
- Beck, Brandon
- Brant, Tessa
- Browder, Clifford
- Cancro, Theresa
- Cates, Anna
- Chilicas, Eve
- Cipriano, Lorraine
- Crupi, Brandon
- Davitt, Deborah
- Depaul, Maria
- Durick, Jerry
- Flanagan, Michael
- Griffith, Michael A.
- Guilford-blake, Evan
- Heath, Gary
- Hicks, Scott
- Hill, Rowland
- Jacobsen, Mary Elder
- Jones, Larry
- Kamp, Lianne✦
- Kozma, Joseph J.
- Lowe, Dennis
- Mcloughlin, Mary
- Melnyczuk, Fred
- Melton, Bill
- Nicola, James B.
- Passant, Matt
- Patterson, Melissa
- Pescatore, Tom
- Plume, James
- Redmond, Reed
- Reinhart, John
- Rheaume , Gabriel
- Rossi, Patricia
- Sargent, Angela
- Schmidlin, Susan
- Schutter, Mary R. P.
- Schweickert, Cody
- Scully, Ron
- Smith, Tim
- Tw, Barbara
- Wang, Monica
- West, Tyson
- Zeba, Nusrat
- Zempel, Rachel
Mary R. P. Schutter
grief stabs brutally again and again
old Doc Time slowly sutures raw wounds
scars hold tender remembrance
Larry Jones
the cold lonely eyes
of my dead mother
float by in a cloud
Matt Passant
Swirls and curls darting
Diving colors in the sun
Spinning tail and lost
Tyson West
horns of a blizzard
etch saints’ faces
on fallen trees
Bill Melton
Shards of light pierces
Languid pregnant morning clouds
Giving birth to rain
Bill Melton
The graceful snowflakes
Dance across the leaden sky
Perfect harmony
Gabriel Rheaume
The feral child in the soup kitchen
Growled and hissed
She took a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Patricia Rossi
worn rosary beads
abacus of prayer
cradled in trembling hands
Angela Sargent
Sleep rolls through in shifts
Waves of worries crashing
Shore of the mind.
Brandon Crupi
These explosions are rhythmic.
I can sleep through all of it
forever.
Gary Heath
In Iowa gourmet coffee shop
Nose rings in poetry slam
Meet seed caps of pinochle game.
Scott Hicks
empty reservoir,
first snow on the mountain –
hope
Monica Wang
As rain falls on the grass
I walk across my yard
expecting only light
Rachel Zempel
brisk Autumn morning
fog stretches beneath street lights
soul searching from bed
Theresa Cancro
city strangers
crossing the street in rain...
umbrellas embrace
Tim Smith
campfire embers spark
shedding light on pale blush cheeks
moonlit thoughts are read
Michael Flanagan
grandpa whispered
we renamed the new moon...
bomber’s moon
James B. Nicola
The world’s too wide
When you are not
Where I am.
Cody Schweickert
lewd graffiti
littered & strewn
city playgrounds
James Plume
We still use the wobbling chair
That broke after she threw it.
I don’t mind the instability.
Brandon Beck
a bolt of white-orange lightning
far across the plains
silently declares its presence
Jerry Durick
Sirens, more sirens
Morning full, afternoon, night
Today is burning
Susan Schmidlin
The evening tide of ebbs and flows,
slowly advances up the dry sand,
to erase the sins of the day.
Barbara TW
Wherever you are
your feet find footholds hewn here
in my white, stone heart
Tom Pescatore
inside the freezer
the lulling eyeballs mask
four walls of a coffin looking out
Nusrat Zeba
Baby brother small
with dimpled smile and restless
vigor fills my days
Joseph J. Kozma
Without good reason
Leaving me cold on the tracks
The train stole away
Eve Chilicas
Beaconing image
with warbling reflections
come to the surface.
Dennis Lowe
bacon grease
snow capped picket fence
few flowers survived
Tessa Brant
first freeze of winter
trees stripped down to twisted claws
sky gray as my heart
Melissa Patterson
Washing the saucepan,
I still smell the tomato
smell...Spring evening
Melissa Patterson
Spring afternoon
To the left of the front porch,
dad’s cigarette ash
Rowland Hill
Black bears salmon-fish
Bald eagles join in the feast
Harvest Festival
Fred Melnyczuk
The half-moon gives a casual glance
Over clean and humid streets,
Where water drops—whisper.
Mary Elder Jacobsen
How you’ve grown, child
of mine--pearl from my oyster,
you sparkle like snow.
Kevin Andersen
I pour some of my beer into the sea
over which we spread your ashes.
Here’s to you, grandpa.
Deborah Davitt
What de Leon didn’t know, was
that to reverse age, the Fountain
flowed inversed—and sucked him in.
Lianne Kamp✦
Sisters by cosmic design
Beads on a genome necklace
Our own private Mardi Gras
Lianne Kamp✦
Trees shiver naked
Revealing the river bed
Summer’s sultry hidden secret
Clifford Browder
Cynics writhe
Delicately gored
On the tusk of my civility.
Maria DePaul
Petals spread to the sun
A rose in full bloom
Is fated to peak, then wither
Michael A. Griffith
The postmark was new to me
Cold ivory envelope
Words never meant to be read
John Reinhart
dangling feet
edge of the world
fishing for supper
Lorraine Cipriano
Bloody pearls on pale neck
brass stake missing Victorian heart
steampunk vampire lives on
Anna Cates
spring rain
a snail probing
garlic shafts
Evan Guilford-Blake
Bare walnut branches.
I shiver in the cold wind.
A chickadee sings.
Reed Redmond
our castellated edges
not quite interlocking
castling to rubble
Ron Scully
one fold at a time
slowly roses disrobe, knowing
red their only reason
Mary McLoughlin
Mud clumps on her knees,
like she had knelt or groveled
before God or man.
Mary McLoughlin
Her bold red lipstick
leaves stains on her Tootsie Pop
like a hooker’s kiss