JACOB AND THE ANGEL by Ingrid Blaufarb Hughes
We Are All Complicit
In Mariupol, a man searchesall night in the rubble of his house.“Four children, four adults,” he says,as day breaks. He starts to dig their graves.
On a New York street a man...
FOUR HAIKUS by Jeffrey Tao
Four Haikus
Music
Music feeds the soulTouches our deepest recessesLove and cherish it.
Rippling Lake
Gently rippling lakeBathed in soft autumn sunlight.Leaves in myriad shapes.
The Starling
As I sip coffeeA starling settles nearbyPlumage speckled white.
Lilac Leaves
Green leaves turn yellowPerfectly...
THE GROVE by Tina Klimas
A MALLARD AND THE RED SHOES
I glide through a velvet watermirage of swirling autumnalcolor. In the water, trees bleedand shimmer. I glide throughtrees, and trees are water and wateris sky. I am mallard. I...
TO PAINT A CLOUD by Russell Dupont
TO PAINT A CLOUD
To paint a cloud,apply colors, etherealand pure. Translucentlike white powdermisted onto silk.
Wield your brushinto the heavensso your cloudsheave, like an ocean’sgreat waves
or stampeding horsessoaring into the sky,a gambol of dragons,swirling bearers...
THE YELLING MAN by V. A. Rivera
The Yelling Man
The man screeches at the bird watcher he nearlyruns over, screams at his ice cream meltingin the heat, shouts at his noisy twins just being kids.He once had a wife. But he...
IN THE BEWITCHED AVIARY by Pawel Markiewitz
In the bewitched aviary.
The sonnet according to Mr. Shakespeare
Helots muse about moony Golden Fleece of the condor.
Drudges think of the dreamy eternal dew of the hen.
Philosophers ponder on winged fantasy of the crow.
Kings ruminate...
FOREVER AUGUST by Linda Barrett
Forever August
We hate to see August drain awayLike the grains of goldFleeing from a dying miner’s handFrom an old movie.We want to remember theLush, emerald-green of the vegetationWhich surrounds us.Like a sweet-smelling cocoon.My nose...
I HAVE MISSING PIECES by Nanette Rayman-Rivera
kaleidoscoping a sun-dressed mare
Lest my heart becomes a seagull, soars away—the world is a cold country—lest my heart effervesces in pyrogenic fever, leaving my body unlike a lamb, but a naïve bull running from...
KILNS FANTASTIQUE by T.J. Masluk
KILNS FANTASTIQUE
for J. G. Verne
Neath the kilnsof Coplay,one mile deep,
adrift
through cavernsof twinkling aquamarine.
Rooms untouched,musty cold,
gurgling streams teemedwith finned marmalade,
shrooms golden brownlike altar bread,
opening worldswithin worlds.
T. J. Masluk, poet and writer, has work appearing in...
TRICKSTER by Kiara Letcher
There’s a fly in my champagne coupethe door is locked from the wrong side
Freshly squeezed stars and glitter all over the floorfreshly squeezed heart vessels and vermillion all over the groundI once read that...