Poetry

POETRY By Ife­oluwa Ayan­dele I know a door that leads to some­where in the dark and walking right through  the door is like walking through a house   filled with the void of a ghost. I am outside  my own body & my grief grows like…

POETRY By Linda Michel-Cassidy Recla­ma­tion   A whale appears in the bay ahead of sched­ule and far from the Pacific.   Because we ache  for wonder these days, we think this a good sign,   an omen of a new begin­ning or some such non­sense, despite her showing ribs. …

POETRY By Tatiana Retivov There is a country where my voice must hold its daily reck­on­ing and ques­tion this alle­giance to the spirit of the cross­roads who has scat­tered what remains too hor­ri­ble for lan­guage and placed a skull over a stump to guard his wretched bound­aries. I…

POETRY By Jason Kahler Not on purpose. She makes the house payment one week and makes the same mort­gage payment the next week. Words come harder now, like the wood of the Scrab­ble tiles but less glossy. The rules slip away: no con­trac­tions, no proper…

POETRY by Dina Folgia   if I leave my dad will too   hands clutch­ing bitter hand                               mis­er­able cal­lous­es   wrench­ing plugs from sockets …

POETRY By Brit­tany Adames   On the modular couch, the fingers splays against the curve of a col­lar­bone, tele­vi­sion   flick­ers in a mea­sured motion. We have mirac­u­lous­ly invent­ed the clatter, the   per­for­mance and the self-rule, the ghost of a pot that hasn’t hit the stove …

POETRY By Tatiana Retivov  You were in a wheel­bar­row that day when the wind over­turned trees, trash­cans, and I was being born.   In the pavil­ion Hazel foamed while Furies hovered above, their hands wrung with joy. She kept me dead­locked like Julius Caesar in a pool of blood.…

POETRY By Jeffrey H. MacLach­lan Easter Egg my fists   concuss    the easter        egg    juice    beet  lips       of                christ dis­charg­ing        from    the easter         egg…

POETRY By Jonathan Pessant  a med­i­ta­tion on the      passing of Thich Nhat Hanh   five novices kneel five recruits sit   ten heads are shaved basic    for train­ing   recit­ing ten pre­cepts oathing seven values   trans­form all suf­fer­ing         obey all orders   are you part…

By Gideon Emmanuel A boy asked his mother one night how  it is to survive in a  country where sur­vival is a furnace & his body like a metal goes  through it every time an invis­i­ble hand pulls the trigger    hard  to break life’s rules and…