POETRY: “THE STACK” by Michael Salcman

I apologize for not reading the stack of books
you’ve sent me,
those wet stories of a West Virginia childhood
with nighttime drives around cliffs […]

Poetry: “Yesterday,” by Abie Irabor

we neighborhood kids flooded the sidewalk
waiting for the ice cream truck to sing its tunes.

Jelly sandals melted into the concrete while jean skorts
and tank tops colored the bleakness of the apartment block. […]

Poetry: “SUNFLOWERS AND YELLOW LILIES” by Emily Hyland

We finally talk, palm tree humid balm doesn’t
wilt the rules. This rehab center is strict.

Prose: “Deidre” by Heather Rutherford

The bottle of Jameson shattered into fine green needles and sprayed across the Connellys’ white kitchen floor. Conversations went so quiet that Thomas’s whispered “shit” could be heard across the room. […]

Poetry: “ALONG THE RUSSIAN RIVER, LATE MARRIAGE” by Julia Chiapella

The silence a crushed space, you stood, cast
eyes to rocky ground beneath you. Fingers

in pockets a familiar anchor—you twisted,
bent, found the smooth, flat stone, considered […]

Poetry: “IN DEATH VALLEY” by Emily Eddins

How unlikely that we should be here at all
Our presence but a brief raven’s call
Across the valley of this desert place
The worn rocks bearing an indifferent face […]

Poetry: “Poem Written by a Robot” by Peter Bethanis

Poem Written by a Robot Roses and gladiators. I serve the purpose of serving you. The weather is reasonable. Czar Nicholas the II dug knives to Albuquerque . To whom recalibrates the brother of gregarious neighbors? Mary had a little lamb, little lamb… a blue outhouse reinstated the right timetable. I joke; I joke. The […]

Poetry: “My First Attempt at a Love Poem” By Louise M Budd

I’ve never written a poem like this.
No cupid’s ever held my quiver
I’ve never felt the butterflies
That oft called “delicious” shiver

Poetry: “Uncle Rudi” by Michael Salcman

UNCLE RUDI —after Gerhard Richter, 1965 Based on a family snap the artist’s uncle stands a warrior posed in grand regalia, facing the camera head on, two columns of buttons front his winter coat with smeared eagles and almost invisible lightning bolts on the collar and epaulets, a swastika perched on his cap. Smiling like […]

Poetry: “Gitmo Orange” by Christopher Barnes

Day 1: Kurt Cobain’s bore held with essence-snarling potion. Day 2: Funnel-tubed by diagnosticians, Bound-to- happen morgue rattle an inexhaustible threat. Day 3: Overhanging suffocation in firm plastic hood. Day 4: In sea thirst Guerrilla dogs racket. Day 5: Oblivion dithers, clocks refuse to tick. Christopher Barnes’ first collection LOVEBITES is published by Chanticleer. Each […]