Poetry - Year IV - Number 23 - April 2019

I AM AN AFRICANby Okoli Stephen    I AM AN AFRICANI am an African,Not blackI'm dark, with bright brilliant colourBold and strongGiftedTalentedAnd craftyDark I amNot blackSo, don't pity meI am an AfricanNot a monkeyMy colour is...

NOTHING LEFT TO SAYby George Freek THE DEAD (After Mei Yao Chen) A sultry breeze weakens,as the dying sunfalls like a ball of lead.A raven searches for carrion,hovering above my head.I walk the lake shore alone.I...

FRACTIONSby Anya Lofamia bodies and becoming who chose this face for me : is this mine?there is some strangeness in being bornto a body of a twenty-six-year-old human being.what happened to me? he thought. it was no...

IN ANOTHER MAN'S POEMby Gordon Roberts After the Service                     for RudianneAfter the serviceAfter the prayersAfter the family gatheringGoing through his stuffMy sister shows meHis All-Star Cons in blue suedeHis feet were narrowMine are wideBut I took...

SONATAby Trivarna Hariharan LullabyListeningto our river’s old flow—I make peace with myself. SonataWhat shall fillthe absence ofthe flowers thathave fallen fromour Kadamba? ReflectionIn the stillnessof an autumn river—I meet a worlduntouched bythe mind. FloweringBreath by breath—a peony opens...

GRANITEby Elizabeth Spragins Granite a stream of pebblestrickles down the fractured face—rivulets of raintug an acorn from its tombdeep within the wrinkled rocks ~Mount Desert Island, Maine Jewels daybreak polishesdew drops pearled on linden leaveswith emerald fireiridescent damselfliesdance the...

INTO THE BLIZZARDby Kathy Robertson Fall Festivities During our annual drivewe rediscoverthe buttery meadowsmeandering amongstNiagara Escarpment bluffsdecked in colourful coatsof the season burgundy,gold, scarlet, plum—as sun’s raystorch the landscape. Crisp, crinkly leavescrunch underfootas we stop to surveyroadside...

    IN THIS GREAT AND COMPLEX WORLDby Carla Carlson   GREETING THE BUSINESSMAN AFTER INDIA I have no sayover the sky’sgrey determinations.My husband drivesa motorized toothbrushinto his mouth.He’s still jet-lagged.A problem is a thingone must change.A kiss. A...

OPEN BOOKby Dominique Williams The Consequences of a Dream A bitter truth wrapped in translucenceA fervent hope dashed upon consciousnessA trip to UtopiaA descent into Hell Memories revealed as an abandoned home;It’s paint and wallpaper peeling off...

ALIVE DAYby Ashley Ener   ALIVE DAY You don’t know you’re in something till it’s overYou don’t know you’ve made an impact till it’s pastEver changingEver stillOne minute you’re sixteen wanting to make a differenceThe next you’re...