Poetry - Year V - Number 36 - May 2020

Before Tomorrow Came In this pandemic, I’m thankful for the chanceto say, I love you, because there’s notalways tomorrow when the world’s been throwna curveball. Where’s Superman when you needhim? I thought I could do it, you...

WINTER IN DELHIby Anvesh Jain  Tuesdays are to Anjaneyar I wish I didn’t have to thinkAbout my hands coiled in red string,Performing ablutions on a dirty mugAs the water seeps through my knuckles. I wish I didn’t have...

MOM’S HAPPIEST CHILDby Patricia Feeney    “But Patty, you’re my happiest child.”My mother spoke with a dreamy smile,eyes lit, tiny glints in the darkened bedroom,the sanctuary of my ten-year-old self.    She held me in her arms...

DAYLIGHT ROLLSby Diarmuid ó Maolalaí  DAYLIGHT ROLLS daylight rollslike trains on train tracksonward, very steady,very hot and business-like.COLD AS A COAT FROM THE CLOSET winter comesbrittle and thick soupy.lather soaking upwardin a draft of rotten leaves. it...

MAN UPby Frank ModicaMan UpGood Catholic boys in button down shirtsand blue jeans fought on the school playground,rising and falling in the masculinity standings.This brutal competition snared everyone,large and small, Polish, Italian,or Irish, and...

THE ALCHEMIST, GRASPING FOR MEANINGby John Sweet  incantation for the refused the rumor of your death orthe lie that is your life                          bothmaybeand at the same time sunlight and famine andunpaid bills the news of warwhich is how...

POEM FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDSby Tom Carter  When I look on you, I seeA land that is your own: Un-pioneered ravines and hills, overgrown,Uncharted streams and dales, valleys Nooked in darkness still, unsown,Fertile tracts of ground waiting...

WHEREFORE ART THOU, MY LOVEby H.L. Dowless  Dreamin’ Of Peaches In Moon Light                                                  I was living in Renoin a hotel staring at the walls,thinking of the love we’d had oh,N’ where we’d both gone so wrong. Here...

RULE BEYONDby Daniel King  Kalpa Adept I am alone, eternal and oneFollow my journey, the waterline’s forceGalaxies and the Rift,The Earthlight that burns,Twin-born I reign allInfinity’s son. Afterglow’s warmth others will yieldCold ways a last choiceBut old.Kalpas...

The Last Nail Wonder,regret,disconnected phones,internet searches,discoveries and obituaries—coffinsand coffinsand coffins—so many coffinsnailed shutby outdated addressesbeside names ina 25-year-old address book. Old I She was supposed to outlive him,but she gave up,left him alone,dependent on visitationsfrom her childrensaddled with...