Michelle Bitting – Lost in the Disco Ball
Lost in the Disco Ball No reason to fear the last or open call. When Twyla picked me to dance back in the 90’s, I died. It was heaven collapsing in the doorway after the sweaty all-day audition. Our rescue dog Harley came from an open call to adopt off the streets of Tijuana so […]
Mary Makofske – Risky Decisions Make the Best Stories
Risky Decisions Make the Best Stories But few want to live them. Better to lie awake under a bedside lamp while pursued by dogs than feel their teeth in your calf. Better to smuggle the drugs snuggled in your vagina while in an easy chair than submit to the full body search and handcuffs, the […]
Louie Leyson – Love Poem: Lucifer
Love Poem: Lucifer after Donika Kelly Nothing approaches a fall like me. It isn’t the body but the shout that stays. I came down with wet eyes, wild hair, odd wings. Muted the way windows mute laughter during rain. I flew backwards from that glimpse into how awful goodness is. What spade should now tend […]
Clint Margrave – Syllabics
Syllabics A bird crashed into the gym window while I was on the Stairmaster looking out over an empty soccer field and listening to a boring poetry podcast about syllabics. Window, I thought, that’s two syllables. And bird, poor bird, one. They say that sometimes when this happens a bird will go unconscious and survive, […]
Rebecca Faulkner – Empty Nest
Empty Nest My fault —waking too early, worrying I am bad for the garden, soil vindictive as a Gothic stepmother. Bad for the pantry, Pyrex taunting me idle & lidless. Woodlice scissor my spine as chores pile up. Every window in the attic demands to be opened. Branches of the plum tree must be pruned […]
