LIFE NEVER STOPS DANCING by Russo Shanidze
WHO ARE WE?
Words matter—Words are powerful—Words can save or immensely damage us.
But the question is “Which words do we want to choose to embroiderThe blank sheets that can last for a lifetime?”Before the words...
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...
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...
LEARNING A SONG by Jyothsna Phanija
Writing on a Tree
Thick plainness as sodaIce like migraineSlowing down thoughtsAs a reliefI findFingers covered in sandalwood paste.Half of it is wiped away with water, tingling,Listening to kajriI think of scrubbing fingers harshness in...
AT GOULD FARM by Daniel Senser
The Garden of Eden
There is a song in the wellspring of my being,a rainbow that shines forth from my eyes.Like a child’s tears, it is endless, and from mybreath wafts the scent of the...
LESSONS FROM MY FATHER by Yetta Rose Stein
REGARDING THE END
There is the brink.It is mostly off in the distance.It is sometimes very close.You will stroll up to it.Some of your friends will hungrily jog.There will be one or two who leap.You...
UNDER THE SUN by Robert Funderburk
Wives of Nightfall
We are theWives of nightfallMaidens of the dark
Our lips smooth as oilFeather-soft voicesSpeaking words of lustRobed in garments ofLove
Our prey who returnNight upon nightSeem somehow less humanTheir bodies shrinkingTheir eyes unseeingClouded by...
PLANET by Livio Farallo
tenth millennium
i’m sure i was the same
as the
stone; round and ungolfed;
fractured from something much larger
that stumbled down
the
mountain.
there is nothing that
laughs any
harder than
a murder
of crows. i can sit, without
a
fossil etched
any-
where;...
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...