Tag: poets

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“It’s All Happening at the Zoo” by Amy Soricelli

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How odd to be him, here in this place of fierce thoughts and solid fur. All the best games in the sun, the cold windy bars keeping us tight from one another. She says “look up” I see long necks with spotted long lashes eating from trees. Bears with paws settling down into the pounce and fear of our million looking faces. It is much easier, I answer, to be him, here in this place sneaking between blades of grass, cigarette foil, broken glass. There are cages with stripes, wide eyes, shouts and warnings, pellets of food between their toes. The … Continue reading “It’s All Happening at the Zoo” by Amy Soricelli

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A Series of 3 Poems by Samuel J. Fox

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  An Update from Baptist Country   Like a ghost swallow, Christ was lifted into the wide, empty fields of heaven by the wind. Yes, wide. Indeed, empty.   You don’t want to die before you see the face of God in the eaves of a pink dogwood tree. If you don’t, you weren’t truly here now, were you?   The truth shall set you free: freely you shall set the truth.   In this story, for everything is a story, a boy listens to a preacher speak of hell as a place he will go for loving every mouth … Continue reading A Series of 3 Poems by Samuel J. Fox

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“and then She was shipped across the world” and “Document2” by Parag Desai

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and then She was shipped across the world to work and produce, and to work and produce, in a fortress of infinite greed, tending slot machines, for donald trump in february of ’93.   She met the man she married after a lapse of two years. his belly had grown since then, his smile had yellowed since then.   and exactly—with mechanical precision—a year later i was conceived. Her belly too would grow. She quit work to produce, and then worked to produce: a clean kitchen, an undisturbed bed, warm roti, daal, shaak.   the tasks never truly added up … Continue reading “and then She was shipped across the world” and “Document2” by Parag Desai

Arsenic Hour

“Life // slip // stream” by Elisabeth Horan

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It’s nothing / hangs / like toile / white gauze / surgery / comes and goes / lab coats I never wore / monkeys & rabbits / guilty / I am always / I hate the inaction / I hate the mascara / raccoons flood my airways / knowing what I don’t or won’t do / embarrassing / I want the chicken but waste her every time / her bones unlovable / her beak / as my tailbone / so broke so broke / the shells too thin / they crack they crack / when I brood / they smash … Continue reading “Life // slip // stream” by Elisabeth Horan

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“Portrait of a girl and her films” by Anjali Bhavan

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  take a scalpel to my temple and carve out; frame your questions and let my dreams splay out on your petri-dish. ask me what I really want. and here’s what I’ll tell you: sometimes, I want to be framed like a Guru Dutt film, I want to be nothing but cotton balls and luminous umbrellas shadowing lovers with cups of sake. I want to hide, blush and drape myself in my embarrassing ardour. I want to be a black coat and a graduate’s moustache, perhaps the last blot of grey ink on a dying poet’s poem for the muse … Continue reading “Portrait of a girl and her films” by Anjali Bhavan

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“A Queer Hymn Sung by an Atheist” by Jeremy Mifsud

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  During my silent days, your corpse leans its heavy weight against the door. I lie in bed, on the shards of a smashed phone, burning incense, burning the sheets and any bed bug that might have kissed you. I breathe the fumes and hope to kill withstanding memories. I bathe in starry tears to rebirth my soul, knock at heaven to claim a second chance. & what am I if not a vulnerable boy seeking redemption from a Father that had abandoned his son, kneeling in front of him like I kneeled in front of you. I long for … Continue reading “A Queer Hymn Sung by an Atheist” by Jeremy Mifsud

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“THE WAIT” by Michael Akuchie

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i keep a pinch of soul on the nightstand & leave open the windows of this room plagued with fear of the great unknown of my heart continually exposed to grief stricken events a bible nestles close, perfumed pages advertise ageless wisdom our fleshes meet briefly as stares are visited upon each other my mouth folds up a prayer & holds on until it is perfectly shaped to fly across the night & carry my life on for the next stretch of days because i swallow enough problems to cause incurable bloatedness because everytime of day is a gift to … Continue reading “THE WAIT” by Michael Akuchie

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“Damocles” by Jennifer Wholey

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A haibun   Brush firmly tangled into a deep nest of my hair, I learned about the sword of Damocles from my father one perfect Hawaiian evening. The sun was a picturesque blur of color bleeding on the horizon; I knew the brush must stay in my hair until it set, or I would surely die. I feared the knives asleep in the kitchen island, the balcony of the bedroom loft, my mother’s too-reassuring smile. I needn’t be afraid, my father said, of a sword hanging over my head by a horse’s hair, lest I waste away wondering when it … Continue reading “Damocles” by Jennifer Wholey