by Kristal Peace My fatherWas a busy man. He sat all dayIn front of his computer. Often,He took time to check his SmartphoneBecause it beeped a lot; it needed Him.I would try to interrupt himHoping we could play a gameOf tag, or hide-and-seek, or soccer.Or even read a book together….
by Gil Hoy I’ve no use forA stainless steelLightweight Corrosive resistantContraption That encumbersMy wristAnd can’t Tell me anythingUseful anyway. “There will be time,There will be time,To prepare a faceTo meet the facesThat you meet.” No, there’s no timeFor a chronometer With a full date display,Blue dial, rhodium-Plated hands And an…
by Amy Covel Looking back,I can’t regretmy choices. I put on armorto protect myself.It kept me safe,but I lostsome friends. I was serious.This made me matureand successful.But I forgotto be a childuntil I was old.
by Julie Worsham (This poem contains sexual abuse and self-harm.) Man, I don’t wanna go to this class todayThe teacher’s always talkin’ bout how I need to apply myselfI guess she don’t understand how badly I want to fade awayJust curl up in my bed, cover my head, and forget…
by Brian Reickert The sun flicked offlike it was on a switch,and the darknessand the cold were instantand absolute. No one expected it to happenlike that, not one.An event utterly without precedentor warning. Every law and book, everyprophecy and prayer,every theory and model, alloverturned and swept away, and no one…
by Adrienne Monestere She was carvedfrom wooden shaftsof blackwood and pink ivory,mulched and pulpedin collated swank.From bolted margins she’s parted from her shieldrebelling against the jotter, torn to an asphalt schoolyard,mutilated to a ball, beaten and launchedwith their wooden bats, smashed in a recess game.Humiliated, frightened, risingthrough ridicule, she lies wrinkled,rumpled and tramped. She limps towards…
by Antonio Eramo I wake to clanging bells behestand rush to places I detestI pour my roaring youth awayentrapped in “no” from yesterday to know thyself is just a conI knew her once and now she’s gonethe same paths as the day beforeI walk today and feel unsure
by daria smith giraud My beaded bob clang like percussive clear quartz crystalsagainst the humming of taxi hornsair lifting my body on small brick fencesLeaping from curbed sidewalks into the air I loved New York in the summerTimes of music, drums in the park,rays pizza, papaya dogs and orange juliusNighttime…
by Eliza Astère the skies of June are tied to my heart with a dainty silver stringeach grey cloud misty on her owngrieving the loss of the earth as it was knownwhile silver linings flourish like flowers deep in sorrowso goes my gloom, in a promise:may the hopes yesterday guide…
by Jim Kraus Past the line of stones,watch out for the kiawe, its thorns.Then run across the hot sand to the cool water,its soft, long syllable,line after line, vast ridgesof golden sand, each grain now a unit of money.Portable real estate,the beach a mint to be mined and exchanged. Sand…