40 years later
by michael estabrook
Linda does not remember Patti’s boyfriend Bob
being at Patti’s Sweet Sixteen Party
or that Bob was even her boyfriend at the time.
“I don’t remember that,” she muses
after I ask her about it.
But …

Dakota
by Sam
Outside Rapid City flat blue grey Sioux plains a sign with a light
old red peeled says see the last of the great buffalo in sawdust
broken pails and crumbling corral the cow and her calf …

michael jackson
by shawn misener
They all go from geniuses to freaks
emerging from brilliant white closets
to faces painted white
they all go from geniuses to freaks
They pop out of nowhere like stray bubbles
and linger like steel memories around …

A Little Like Rape
by donal mahoney
This sylph came forward
from the second row
the second day of class
and asked if
I would edit her poem
so it would read
the way it should.
I told her straightaway
that even though
this was writing …

room 1101 at the buckminster hotel
by a.g. synclair
in the morning
when the dawn splinters our room
and her mouth
could melt butter
the cliché of
her legs
long and drawn out
like a lie told one too many times
gets chewed up and …

love is
by kimberly e. ruth
I want to smoke tea leaves with you, baby
and play ping pong off the hood of our neighbor’s
Mercedes Benz. I’ll let you serve me
 
Love me.
 
I was reminded of you this morning …

Chick-Fil-A Nightmares
by chelsey storey
Yellow daffodils sprout
from a black plastic vase
on a Chick-fil-A table.
A cow clock reads
“U snooz, U looz
chikin.” Chick-fil-A toys
aren’t toys, but educational
word bingo or 50 states trivia.
The waves imprinted on the table
cloth resemble …

To The Bird Under The Window
by ajay vishwanathan
Your shuddering body makes sense to me
Like nothing else does;
The seduction in a reflection is often deadly,
Especially since it is a reflection,
An image of something that doesn’t exist
As …

scythe and a sandglass
by jim benz
Serafino has one handkerchief
which he keeps in an oak box
wrapped in linen beneath his bed.
It is as clean as the tears of a saint
and twice as holy. Prior to its …

Night at the Opera
by Genie
Looks like someone painted
picasso on your arm;
the scalpel is still warm with the
unintended oh-so bittersweet
ideals of your innocence.
Call me a liar,
call your lawyer
lying there is the best …

My Name
by ivan jenson
Want to hear my name frequently
said in a 3:00 am whisper
and see my name in the lights
of your eyes
or in chocolate on a cake
celebrating the day
I stepped into my name
and owned it.
Sing …

Bathroom Crucifix
by carolynn kingyens
I remember the first time I touched a crucifix.
I was five years old, alone, in my grandmother’s
powder-blue bathroom, unaware of suffering and sacrifice,
unaware of the million and one ways a sinner could …

joey ‘no toes’
by drew deGennaro

Did ya hear
your cousin
Joe
escaped
the hospital
on foot
yesterday
 
after
Doctor A.
called out
the hit
 
knocked off
Joey’s little friend
Charlie
 
like nothing
 
and Louie
‘The Big Toe’
Romano
got stubbed
 
tying
to save
Ol’ Chuck
who’s now
swimming
with …

levitating cat
by gene defcon
A levitating cat
Is constantly stressed
Throughout her terrible journey
Partly from crows
Partly from storms
But mostly from bumping her back
On the underside of branches and
Ceilings and sidewalk tarps
Wind-wisp puffball
Doomed to land on her feet
Unprepared for …

Knitting
by Bree
Thank you all for the lint
You sweetened the sweater
With your talk cadence
The hair suit you sent clings
To me, just like singing
To a brick-alley way
does;
So syrupy the way this
Fray does,
What it is told and
On time,
too.
I …

meningitis
by garland middleton
I’m lying in bed and my perspective is that of one point. I am stuck. I am moaning and all I hear are the neighbors next door. Moaning. Joyously. While I am here …

A page from Embers
by reed posey
I’m jumping ship to Europe
I’m leaving the velvet screw
I’m leaving the heterosexual dollar
I’m leaving the bombs of Detroit
The smells,
The bosses,
Those things that fall out of magazines
Those things that float off …

little witch were
by anthony lucero
little witch were
your hair any less
golden you’d be
a flower were your hat
any less black you’d
be a star were your
boots any less
barefoot i’d hear the
waves break in your
heart little witch
i don’t …

FRUIT
by phil davison
The summer holds appled cogs.
Juicing and spitting their mulled pours.
And sagging to a ballooned skin-pulp.
I hatch the wet rainbow blankets to flock to lemon ponds,
and party with dead packets and soot caked spine-feathers.
My …

laying low
by yossarian
you’ve gotta get to the liquor store
about noon
at ten
when they open
the hopeless are lined up
three deep
waiting to get in
and at midnight
well
we all know about liquor stores
at the last minute
but at noon
you can slip …

CHARLES HAS SOME RELATIVES OVER FOR DINNER,
TRIES TO HAVE A CONVERSATION,
BUT IS SENT UP TO HIS ROOM
by cynthia ring
Math problems take the backseat in a flat-tire jalopy—they press their noses to the window, and fog …

The Zombie’s Valentine
by ben macnair
It had been a blind date.
Lorraine would never have
chosen Gary for her Valentine.
She had always been open-minded
about other people’s beliefs.
She had been told that Gary
was the strong silent type,
But he had …

sparring partners
The bell sounds.
Outside the ring
stars throw a blur
of white knuckles
in paired millions
at you
but the crusher sun has got your back. we are slabs of meat,
He’s a fist that pummels the sky …