Poetry - Year V - Number 28 - September 2019

MY GRANDMOTHER’S BRIEF INVENTORY OF UNNATURAL DISASTERS IN SINGAPOREBy Cyril Wong 1 Of course, I remember my husbandas a young man – sleeked-back hair,his taller frame, a voice like a wall –  that first date, holding...

  THE BRIDEby Wally Swist    Salutations: after Antonio Porchia            for Richard Shaw 1.The fields are buttercuppedand edged with ragged robin. We've entered the realmof the subtle variegations of the colors of summer. 2.Wishing you well on a mid-June evening,one on...

RAPID MOVEMENTby Patrick Hurley Selections from “Variation” (Part Two of Quartet) sequential fantasy bendssheets of lightinto cylinders­­––veinsarteriescapillaries the waxing and waningof pressure feltlike forces imposed mercury risesin a chamber––in the backgroundthe hum of equanimity questions about the numberof the world’s...

HIBLERby Matt Stevenson The Dead Men Somewhere in Michigan there’s a few hundredmen buried in the woods. Some with theirheads shot off; others have just lost limbs. A feware burned, their bodies so unrecognizably melted. There’s an...

DETACHEDby Laura Dunn I.Phase, just a phase. Not to worry,You’re only insane.Dirty hippy, smoking herb,We don’t want to share your word.Just too liberal, just too free,Don’t you wish you were like ---Me me or me?You...

LAUDA XVBy Jacapone da TodiTranslated from the Umbrian by Ted Witham Pursue poverty, and peace will reign over all:with poverty life is secure, No fear from thieves or thunder squall.Poverty dies in peace, makes no will,leaves...

LAMP LIGHTby Craig Kennedy Neighbors I Have Known Robbiewho never held a job but didn’t discuss it with meTommywho wanted to write a bookAdrianwho chased birds from her backyard every morning by banging the tree with...

SURVIVAL BALLADby Michael Atkinson  Investigations “All detectives are in love, and all detectivestories have beds.”– Guillermo Calderon,screenplay for Neruda All detective stories are clocks, swallowingsecrets and measuring the worries of sunrisedown the alleys streaming east.All detective stories lie,...

PROFITby Nathanael O’Reilly The Third of July On the corner of Prairie Dunesand Spyglass sixteen miniatureAmerican flags line the path to the police officer’s door.Two neighbors mow lawnsbut most have left town or gone to church to hearthe...

COULD A LOVER LOVE MY MUSEby Jan Little Could a Lover Love My Muse? My muse mocks my left-brained worldWith its trudging logical  meetingDaily objectives on chalkboards.At moments between classes, she sneaks out,Makes humorous analogies I...