Category / Poetry / 2019 / Spring 2019

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  • Stormy Hearts – Louis Marin

    The emotions read like a scene from Poe. Not the Poe of black feathered ravens, tell-tale hearts, beating, slowly beatingdriving us mad from their shallow graves.Beneath the floorboards they were hidden. Not the Poe of black feathered ravens, slowly preening and fluffing every featherto assure a velvet smooth polished finish. Upon the bust of Pallas…

  • Spirited – Michael Marks

    Spirited on a Saturday eveningMinus the blessings of my wife and friends,I began my epochal way to Harmony,Bypassing other strains of lifeformsWho had five different senses.Sailing through icy wet flamePast Pluto and Sirius, galaxies away,On my Buck Rogers expedition,Conquering a cryptic frontier,I lost all feeling of now and next.Using my blood as currency,I bargained to…

  • Holding the Universe Together – Micaela Michalk

    If everybody was a string,you’d be a rubber band, holding us all together like the bulk of note cards, I used to have, Stretching until—SNAP— that rebound leaves a ring of red on my skin. I would be a piece of fuzzstuck on freshly laundered clothing, frayed at the ends. You pluck me off and…

  • Untitled – Ailisha O´Sullivan

    I am Lazarus Jairus’ daughter the widow of Naim’s son eyes scrunched and howling I re-enter the world a swaddled corpse new-born. What cursed twist is this paradise twice lostand doomed to die again? What strange love is this hurled out of heaven? Oh Christ! The pain! The pain! Ailisha O’Sullivan was born in Ireland and…

  • A Charcoal Sketch – Sarah Richter

    A woman drawn in charcoalholds her hand up, clenchedto the melting skies above herclaiming her own throughthe energy beyond her skin. It explodes into her palmand she takes it in, tensewith the blinding white blooddripping at once fromthe sparks in the clouds. Her hair, black carbon soot,the natural residue of flames,covers her darkened face.She stands…

  • Carving Rocks – Abhijit Sarmah

    I tried to carve a hymnon a rock one summer night untilstars cumulated on my sleevesand every single word becamea distinct footnote in my memory— invisible rainbows threw downtheir fillets and the moon sang hersongs on holy faces crying todead valleys and eventually prying,half-blind by one dead season— the fog, too, gently hummedits cold electric…

  • Resurrection – Anna Allen

    Resurrection You pulled me from the graveyard Toes first It was difficult to take a breath A mouth full of dark, compact dirt But I did it for you Where did you go for so long I part-way understand Getting lost in the creases of one’s own brain But a single flower would’ve been nice…

  • Subterranean Lyric #3 – Anne Babson

    Subterranean Lyric #3 “O taste and see that the LORD is good….” – Psalm 34:8   I am nestled in the folds of filo dough, Not the nuts, not the honey, that other thing, The one you can’t identify  but that makes Baklava not just saccharine, insipid. You thought it might be cloves, but there…

  • As Of Now – Lily Crowder

    As Of Now   I want to live on the moon. I want to bathe in a crater filled with scorching water and lavender soap. Sweet serenity fills my pores. When the wind grazes your back through the small holes in the lawn chair think of me. I do envy the breeze. May I always…

  • How to Snowshoe – Anthony J. Dennis

    How to Snowshoe   One must forget the snow, the painful arch, the ominous brightness of March.   On snowshoes you must go until the sky un-names you, and the sun burns the memories from your face.   You are lost in a Sahara of snow now, far from the wheel and the plow and…

  • Hillsboro House – Alexis Draut

    Hillsboro House   I can do no wrong but my body still feels like it doesn’t belong to me. It doesn’t matter how I decide what I want to believe, because truth will always inhabit the air of my being. It doesn’t matter where I grow into the fullness of a life, for I will…

  • memories in Wellington – Alexis Draut

    memories in Wellington   Katie and I each stole a boiled egg, salted them, and ate them on the porch behind the wharekai. On a walk in a neighborhood I didn’t know, I found a red leaf and pretended it was my lips. I’m out of words to offer the sun from my mind. All…

  • Luca – Maya Elena Jackson

    Luca   Finally, I’m so free I could die. The carnival sign said “You can ask for anything!” I said “Do you have the silver ring I found at Bookmans, and gave To my high school boyfriend who Wore it while he Played the drums and Bent its shape? Because I am trying To find…

  • money – Anastasia Jill

    money   Her skirt is velvet and slit right up a honeyed thigh — Fendi cheeks and nails sharp brand my back in bloody gold. There is a red strap on her hip bone, the mark of a hot, leather touch. It hurts but she should be happy; after all, she has money. She dresses…

  • An Anthem for Brown – Babitha Marina Justin

    An Anthem for Brown   We grew up in a place where shades of brown mattered: from beige to burnt umber. My mother told me that black is beauty though she herself did not believe it. In the school bus, we measured our skintones against each other’s knuckles; the paler potato-peel brown always won. Some…

  • To Write – Kyle Kutz

    To Write   I’m going to die One day Having left so much undone. Sure, I’ve written some words, Told some tales, But what will they become? A drop In a bucket? Perhaps, A tsunami amid the sea? Well, If I touch Just one soul That’d be alright by me.

  • Barking Dogs and Racing Legs – Lou Marin

    Barking Dogs and Racing Legs   My Great Grand Dad, it may be noted, landed on the docks of Portland, Maine, near penniless, with but his dreams, a pair of patched dungarees, dirty jacket and a brown derby, sun-faded.   He had on his feet a brand new pair of brogan shoes, stove-black polished, that…

  • Poet’s Prayer – Carl “Papa” Palmer

    Poet’s Prayer                                                                                        Father, Son, Holy Spirit Not kneeling in a church pew reciting catechism rote, a last minute plea, genie lamp wish upon a star desire nor begging for winning lottery numbers, just here this day to say thank you for continuing to bless me in spite of my transgressions. I attended Sunday…

  • Bony Egg – Travis Stephens

    Bony Egg   today you arrived with all the notice of a lightning strike; the scent of your hair, your alto laugh, the grace of stretching while at your easel. Somewhere within this bony egg– this overheated mush of fat and string– that memory lives. If I knew which quadrant I’d opt for surgery– a…

  • The Salty Sea of a Dream – Teresa Sutton

    The Salty Sea of a Dream   I wish you days on end golden as honey and new as the sun as it streams above the horizon each morning. I wish you the orange of ripe pumpkins and autumn leaves at the moment they ignite with the essence of their lives. I wish you the…