child’s pose
by halifax
a testing of faith before the chalkboard
I’m not looking up in prayer
I stopped here at a question
that has brought me to halt upon my knees
There’s no worship going on though
nagging praise songs don’t …

Maria’s of the Sea
by halifax
Mark 6:47
that day out past the reef
His friends all went ahead
dragging fishnets behind
She’s usually a sober girl
but this day she is tossed
furiously deep in her cup
flashing her tits at them
to provoke …

doodle-bug
by halifax
breech born
orange rangy tom and his firefly harem
under a stratus strung Texas night
decide to close their wet season
out on a sod farm south of Willis
by making tiger beetle babies
what a drab litter of children …

whiskey sours
by halifax
mama’s secret recipe
Saturday
this town’s last decent man just skipped bail
to scour the different parking lots for one truck
he’s on a mission to lead Junior out of that life
it could take hours to find …

sugar plum fairy dance
by halifax
faith in faith provides comfort and hope
one means of escape,
a coming fortitude to cope
through things unfair
faerie is a slender straining thread
it stretches further than you can see
a whole world apart unsnarled,
but …

red betta fish
by halifax
Seen the splice
a part in the lens
separating sides
my eyes move independently
the film watches me
disturbed sometimes
Edit when it happens
the film must be clean
the colored rocks
they warble in my mind
like distant relatives
better versions of …

carry water for God
by halifax
the marriage of æ
Someone put charcoal in my tea
same person cut my mother free,
a thing she rejoiced to
to be rid of me
Someone planted an ash tree
same hand moved ink to see,
a …

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 …

weaner illthrift
by halifax
new shoes
rain drop cow plop
metal roof rust proof
dead dust sweet grass dry turf chicken coop hack saw rope swing tall wire dog bark white stump low fence grate gravel
wind blown soft spot …

The writers guild local has a need to inform interested Texas writers that they are currently accepting submissions for their yearly Fiction Contest. They are a small venue so odds are in the writers favor …

Letting go of handshakes
by halifax
Elegy to a Terminal Acquaintance
You tragically dead hero
So stoic in brief bereavement.
They filed you impeccably dead,
Stored under dirt in a boxed suit.
The stone placard vitae
Rambles thru an accurate
Tight graven word count,
Impressing …

Getting Over the Moon
{Nica’s Bird}
by halifax
The Dish ran away with the Spoon
Both are in her apartment to cohabit
She got all the horns and legs unlocked,
Out–of-hock, gave them back to him.
His bright round blast blows “Sister, …

{The Family Two-shoes}
by halifax
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
Her husband’s left boot on her foot
makes his lead-steps before their children still.
The right one is on her eldest son.
He followed close behind …

Daring Candlelit Giblets
by halifax
Vyborg Nana’s banana cream pie
Was invented from necessity.
A feared black Baltic verboten curse fruit,
Brought five-thousand nautical miles
North by a scrap iron boat,
Whose rusty faith won’t let her sink.
She won’t have it been …

The Heirlooms
by halifax
Bald-headed dolls,
Supposedly immune to time,
Had their glass eyes taken out
With a screwdriver
And are now lost.
The best doll sits
In a hole filled in with dirt
It plays house to sleeping imagoes
In their pupal casings
Snuggled …

To: Whom It May Concern
by halifax
I am afraid to write
What I know
Because if you read it
Then we know
And what we know is always how it is.
I don’t want to be the thoughts in your …

Apologetics of a Cut Flower
by halifax
Who sent you? Hungry Death, you’re nothing but a middleman. You stand there like a trader, taking what is unappreciated to exchange it for profit. What do you profit in …

Going MAD
by halifax
Table-salt
(Boring DAD)
I read an interview with Mort Drucker in a magazine while my mom got her hair cut. The interview came out around the same time as the issue of MAD Magazine that …

Burn it.
by halifax
“Fill out this form and have a seat
Or sit first, your choice.
Here’s a pen.
That is not a pen.
THIS is a pen!”
“Thanks for the pen.”
“Have a seat and we’ll call for you in …