by Pattie Seely
Back then I didn’t know
that I would miss them so dearly
those women behind the counters
of accomplished age bathed
in Chanel and flaunting
their red French twists.
They had long, pale necks [...]
Ode to an Old Department Store
Meaning of Life # 17
by Sean Lovelace
Spleen is rustling ill. In that way honest. But also outcast, as in weird. Its tattoos have fallen off. “We refuse existence as condiment,” they inform Spleen. Spleen [...]
Harvest
by Gary Beck
Pass us no beginnings,
for tired of toys
and idle mischief,
we stirred no longer.
And when the first fruits
turned to ashes
in our imploring hands,
and we exhausted tears,
we were left impoverished,
defeated planters.
Folly Beach
by Benjamin Pryor
Cascade like a fabulous line of breakers, a feather
tunnel, a slow canter like a show horse
stepping high, and know the beach beauties living
Southern Atlantic, how they wake moving [...]
Memento Mori
by Benjamin Pryor
Opening a box of whipstitched cardboard
I feel the lonesome ancestral weft and see
Ma in the tall pasture.
We played games with sticks, toys chipped from slate,
burlap sacks, fish like [...]
God in Question
by Benjamin Pryor
We have never been what we have wanted to gain,
scooping our family debris, in the way
an apartment garden proudly decomposes.
Garbage fetters the flow, does not care to impose
spent [...]
Scarlett Johansson and the Limits of Veneration
by Corey Mesler
Like Monroe she has flesh you’d think was sweet like cake.
You can almost touch it through the cold screen of
the magazine photo. You [...]
The Shell of an Almond
by Amanda McQuade
Tastes like wet wheat on a deserted road,
Like your name in my mouth – bitter
Darjeeling steep in day-old water
Under a dusty radiator.
I bring you to me, mouth split [...]
Memorial Day
by Robert Lietz
Headlamps glow then dull, broaden at 3 a.m.,
a not so old man tractoring sun up,
the sun well-born for Indiana, Iowa,
before a man climbs down
for coffee and kids’ chatter. [...]
Diamond Head
by William Gillard
The dusty blooms of June
Gone so soon in a gale
I once walked through Diamond Head
After a typhoon
I arrived on the island
After the deluge
All of the blossoms were on [...]
