Articles in Guest Writers
Word Graffiti from Central Mexico
By Dan Hedges
Between alpha-thoughts,
Warhol sucks limes,
where Pontiac and derivatives of art-freedom,
levitate,
sacrosanct.
Baroque patterns of chaos and free will,
march (loyally) to the array of micro-trumpets;
so as to live with words once again.
Bio-chemical mindscapes,
known …
Immortalize
by Vincent Cooper
You hung up your wings
took a sharp left
there was no panic in your heart
as you opened the door to exit
You hunched over the edge
your life was too short to remember that much
and that …
Spike
by JW Mark
I return to spike the live-long morning
Dull brained, mush mouthed, drunk in dread
For burn bright egg goo gore made burn of morning here and now.
What yellow is this morning?
Buzz bomb, vibrant, fuzz fused …
my bay of pigs
by Emma Blowgun
i hadn’t seen her in two years when she came
over on thanksgiving.
it was glorious and foreign and awkward for me
all at the same time, so my best shot
at succeeding
was to …
INTIMATE MOMENTS
by Karl Deiotte
It’s been days since I’ve eaten anything
and still I sit on the pot
and the sound of absolute silence is
fucking
deafening.
The latest issue of that poetry rag I’ve been reading
is the only thing
that keeps …
Sacré-Cœur
by Virginie Colline
Mother
of
Montmartre
Mother
of
pearl
Paris is your oyster
Black waves
at
your feet
In
your heart
a shelter
The New Dentist
by Jaimee Kuperman
Driving to the new dentist’s office
the slow drive of a new place
with the McDonalds that I don’t go to
on the left, the mall two miles away.
The Courthouse and the Old Courthouse
road …
I Was Never Able To Pray
by Edward Hirsch
Wheel me down to the shore
where the lighthouse was abandoned
and the moon tolls in the rafters.
Let me hear the wind paging through the trees
and see the stars flaring …
A Sensuous Moment
by JR Alonso
From behind the counter, she asked me if I wanted a sample. It took me five seconds to realize she meant the hot pocket sandwich she had just baked. I took …
So Much Glass to So Much Steel
by Nathaniel S. Rounds
Behind a clear, glass veil
Facing a snarling, spitting sea
And the dim shadow of Georges Island
I spent nine dollars
From Mother’s retirement cheque
On gelato down at the bay
Birra …
HOW TO GO ABOUT UNDERSTANDING WITHOUT STEPPING ON IT DIRECTLY
by Cheryl Hicks
I remember developing breasts,
(it was the same year the Russians launched Sputnik)
and going with my aunt to buy my first fully-trained bra,
and learning from …
Song To Cantaloupe Head
(derived from postcards)
by Nathan Ventura
O Cantaloupe Head,
forever fickle, yet unrelenting,
always tickling the doorknob
of abysmal death,
you have once again
happened into my skull,
seeping through my mind
like the tires
that ever so slowly
move along the river’s …
The Hunter
(An excerpt from “Valencia: Fresh Squeezed & Uncut”)
by Gideon Carlisle
I am twelve years old
hunting with my father
walking in footprints of
enormous boots; The Remington
heavy on my shoulder, sways
back and fourth
awkward in youthful hands.
We do not …
Metaphysics 101/Open Book Test
by Le Hinton
1. Do you always abbreviate et cetera? Why or y not?
2. If you owned a race horse, what would you name it? (Extra credit, 2 points) What about its twin …
WHORE
by David Gawlik
—–
we are sitting
on the edge of the bed
DAMN IT! she spits,
taking off her boots,
I’VE GOT A HOLE
IN MY STOCKING!
SHIT, I laugh,
sprawling out across the mattress,
THAT’S NOTHING,
I’VE GOT HOLES IN
ALMOST EVERYTHING I OWN
IT’S EMBARASSING, …
Rental Tux
by Bill Trowbridge
It chafed like some new skin we’d grown,
or feathers, the cummerbund and starched collar
pinching us to show how real this transformation
into princes was, how powerful we’d grown
by getting drivers’ licenses, how tall …
Don’t Hang Up
by Louie Crew
Don’t hang up,
I’m not a heckler.
I NEED your help
but I can’t tell you my name.
I’m in a phone booth
while mom buys groceries,
so I won’t take long.
I heard your talk show
and I’m …
THE ANT
by D George Gawlik
i want to
be the ant
that lives
in the hole
in the mortar
of the brick
of the broken
wall that
surrounds
the house
down the hill
abandoned
at the bottom
of a dead end
road
unnoticed
unknown
unmolested
and be
alone
FURNITURE
by Amanda V. Wagner
Empty
Echoes traveled through the rooms bouncing off white marble tile, whistling through chandeliers, swinging off of banisters and circling columns. Glass tapped the granite counter his bottle was empty like the house, …
Shoulders
by Naomi Shihab Nye
A man crosses the street in rain,
stepping gently, looking two times north and south,
because his son is asleep on his shoulder.
No car must splash him.
No car drive too near to his shadow.
This …
By Rubbing 2 Stars Together
by Dan Raphael
stars cant say
or have said
as the frequencies aspiral
as if toothed persistent unexpectedly beneficial
every roof must have a hole
you start with a …
Sometimes, When the Light
by Lisel Mueller
Sometimes, when the light strikes at odd angles
and pulls you back into childhood
and you are passing a crumbling mansion
completely hidden behind old willows
or an empty convent guarded by hemlocks
and giant …
A Tantrum for Charles Potts (AKA Baba Hard Ass)
by Joshua Lew McDermott
I read Yellow Christ “Tantrum”
to two girls in a brown kitchen
from an apartment building
my parents happened
to live in thirty years ago
because the poem
spoke truths …
Mota
By Matthew Dexter
Parked the car beside the beach
Kept the motor running
Flat bed truck full of camouflaged
marina soldiers
Machine guns in hand, they jump from the back.
I turn off the ignition, they head toward the beach
Wearing bulletproof …
Drugstore
by Carl Dennis
Don’t be ashamed that your parents
Didn’t happen to meet at an art exhibit
Or at a protest against a foreign policy
Based on fear of negotiation,
But in an aisle of a discount drugstore,
Near the antihistamine …
we got a mystical funk
by Gena Begley
And the groove
of your hip
was made for a palm
like mine
to place
to hold
and to submerge my prints
beneath your skin
right in
to your very
bone.
The grooves of
your bones
carved out like
notches on
a bedpost
but I …
Wicker Tables
by Noah Gordon
one day,
there won’t be a reckoning.
not even a peep of dismay
will force open the skies,
and there won’t be a lesson
to be learned.
henceforth,
i will only say true words.
henceforth,
etc.
‘don’t speak ill of the dead.’
right.
while …
Taking Apart a Pixie
by KJ Hannah Greenberg
What did you mummer, as the snow,
Confectionary sugar tumbling down, down, down,
Glistened, giving us angels’ wings?
What did you suggest, as the flowers,
Marbled blossoms growing high, higher, highest,
Wafted, stuffing our …
Ode to an Ex-Me
by Madeline Levine
You got my email yesterday
I know cause Big Brother told me so.
I practiced that message over and over
Till I could take that Draft (1) no more—
You know they color that …
Burning the New Year
by Naomi Shihab Nye
Letters swallow themselves in seconds.
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.
So much of any year is flammable,
lists of vegetables, partial poems.
Orange swirling flame …
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