By Olivia L. Casey My scales too heavy now for me to rise.Scales jabbed tightly in my many achesBraided up in agony, I lie. I lift a wing and loose a weakened cryFor I have found a body too weak to wakeThe heavy scales I carry at sunrise. Anxious eyes…
By Seth Pierce (This poem contains reference to self-harm.) Mr. and Mrs. Mad’sMalcontent attitude is a lucid illusion of personal contemptA cover-up to an elusive getaway for attentionPlaying into the conviction of self-deprivation Starving hot-cold souls of artists and philosophers refusing to share anything but pain, In order to gain anything…
By Eva-Maria Sher Every morning another linkin the chain mailof desperate news Ever greater numbersof souls departing in the armsof strangers Our hearts paralyzedour minds exhausted—can’tcomprehend their magnitude Dear Onethe maravillas I wantedto offer for your soul Succumbedto an unexpectedfrost
by Jonathan Cooper In the laneway’s narrowing lightrestaurant workers clutch at coats,plastic bags sagging with personal effects.The doorman curses and fretsat the forgotten family photo, taped insidehis staff locker, smiling into the darkas men pound nails into plywood,closing every way in—every way out.
by Steven R Weiner You are in a room where machines chirpLike chicks in shells who will never peck free, Machines too sleek and modernTo be birds, with spikes and curling tubes Arrayed around small screens trainedTo display your cells in codes, finding patterns Of polarized cells and their magneticEnergy…
by Emily Eddins You could have gone on indefinitelyIf it weren’t for usAll you seals, sea lions, walrusesLooking for the melted iceYou used to breed on, sleep on, nurse onWe took thatConsider yourself evictedIt won’t be coming back Sorry we didn’t invite you to theclimate change mitigation conferenceSorry we forgot…
by K.A. Wright Lie to me in the daytimeTell me you don’t recallBut tonightfor one nightI am your tasty truth Disown the weight of my nameDiscard me somewhere darkCut your eyesTurn your backclose the doorthen open it again tonight Lace my drink with poisonDestroy any guilty dropsbut tonightthis nightI’ll bleed…
by George Freek The generations come and gowith endless repetition,as people travel along the roadand pass away in due time,as spring flowers or winter snows.It’s something we all know.In a few hours I’ll be sitting withanother woman, drinking wine,trying to make new memoriesto forget our past.Perhaps it’s not tragic,but it…
by Steven R Weiner There was a thin dignifiedUpright old ladyAt the front counter –You know the type – they gatherIn churches and other sanctuaries –Paying for her toast and tea with small change.I wondered what she meant by saying“I was up late watching the moonMending its silver-haired cloud fineryWith…
by Lisa Leibow NARRATOROur annual day of drunken excessTraces back two and a half thousand years,To Shushan Kingdom, which stretchedAcross one hundred lands from IndiaOver to Ethiopia.The story starts with a sumptuous feast.A six-month-long party at King’s castle,Feet strolled on tile of onyx and garnets.Where tapestries hung from purple tassels,Wine…