Tag: Poetry

Three Poems by Jim Daniels

Suspension Quiet cinder of shame, until a young boy finds the willto hit back. Except. Suspended from school, that’s what.They don’t care who or how. Accept. He wants a Tums to help him sleep—he likes its soft soundtaste. The photo of courage has no negative, cannot bereproduced like a trick from an old comic book.…
Poetry: “Colombo” by Senie Priti

Morning. I eat rice and curry, so hot it brings tears to my eyes. This is Sri Lanka, I think. I take a tuktuk to the central station. Bustling. Colours and sounds and smells I don’t recognise. The light thick and smoky. And hot. So fucking hot. Everyone’s about the hustle. Cues in the street…
Two Poems by Rusty Barnes

Date Night at Fuddruckers, Saugus MAYear of Our Lord, 2018 we have no imagination,my wife and I,so we end up here, nestled alongside Route 1,causeway to the NorthShore. on the menuthe biggest effing burgerthey have a pound of meat dressedout in cheese,with a great stack of onion. my wife in all things (almost)moderates herself with…
Three Poems by Christopher Kennedy

I Have Approximated Lightning There is the ghost and then the ghost’s shadow. By ghost, I mean memory. By shadow, I mean nothing. Or God. Or feral animals. I could mean father or mother, but I have decided that ghosts are preferable to parents, that feral animals are preferable to absent gods. I grin to…
Three Poems by Christina Olson

Citing Budgetary Concerns, the Hurricane Name Retirement Center Closes Its Doors Listen: they’ve closed the hurricane name retirement center. They cited Medicare, increased life spans—but really, everything changed after Katrina checked in. When she blew through the halls, water sprung from the ceilings. When she sprawled on the couch for Wheel of Fortune, everyone evacuated.…
Two Poems by Conor Bracken

Running After Years My gait’s a mistake my feet keep making.Allow me to introduce myself: an unbridled trot.A hotel quietly on fire and the guestsasleep, dreaming of cleaner sheets.Of forgetting their phone chargersand overtipping the chambermaidsfor messes of deferred responsibility.My lungs inveigh their circuitry with air.What unhappiness propels the sunto punish everything with shadows?I once…
Poetry: “egg” by Tameca L Coleman

1 the desert demandsa new view when waiting is a death pop out the eyeturn the retinainside out turn out lungsmake the heart speak reverse the gut softenbone let followflesh innards wrapped blood and bone paste a shell in bright sun the exteriorblinds peck away the interior the protective eye has becomea…
Poetry: “Necessary Facilities Improvements” by Patrick Williams

Here’s the gougey bodega,the graying gym shoe power lines,sloping toward what televisiontells me is our drug corner. Out front I ghosted throughthe earliest blossoms of an uglyfistfight and didn’t look backuntil I knew it was over. Yards away a wet sweatshirtcloaked a cat’s corpse for mostof a winter, until they vanished:first the sweatshirt, then the…
“A History of Hosts and Vectors,” poetry by Kristin Abraham

(This will not end well,they said when it began.But momentum appreciatesonly one way, so any onusthey bore was solelyin the act of throwingup their hands to lamentthe thumb of God, how ithovers over our heads.Because no man can ownhis sins when the veryworld is force majeureall the way down to itsspecks and quarks.) Our…