Tag: Issue 2

Timi Sanni

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I burn the pages of living for the beauty that lives in fire
& become ash in a conversation that rages within my head

where the voices are stronger than my fist around the mast
of this ship on the sea of horror, where their favorite words

are: cut, sleep, live, l e a – v e. I glide paper planes along the runway
of my wrist to let an ocean of crimson water flow onto the tarmac

of a ragged mind. This red snake slithering across my arm leaves
a splat of venom on the cold, marble floor & I – an outcast of living –

enjoy the melancholy of this rebellion because when tears begin
to flood a neighboring town, we know that grief is a giant

that has found home within a broken body. The night, in guise
of relief brings me an aphrodisiac & demons begin to claim

a betrothal to me. & because horror carries the weight
of a certain void too heavy for one man, I wake to dawn’s light

singing aubades to crows in the house of darkness.

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Timi Sanni is a Nigerian writer and literary enthusiast. His works have been published or are forthcoming in various literary journals like Radical Art Review, African Writers, Rather Quiet, Praxis Magazine and elsewhere. Timi’s work often addresses emotions and truth. He recently won the SprinNG Poetry Contest and is the recipient of the Fitrah Review Prize for Fiction 2020. When not writing or studying, he is either painting or exploring new hobbies. Find him on Twitter (@timisanni.)

victoria mallorga hernandez

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but careless,
I cannot remember &
           the shore below my feet
           confirms that a dream is all
I ever held & even if you wave
across the river, your lips in my hand
are the best reminder that memories are a form
of waiting, & I am tired of licking up the dregs of you
holding it inside my mouth, holding onto a whisper
onto something
that     you know
           was never there.

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victoria mallorga hernandez is a peruvian taurus, trickster, and poet. Currently, she’s an associate editor at palette poetry and editorial assistant at redivider mag. Her first poetry collection, ‘albion’, came out in 2019 from Alastor Editores. Her work has been featured in Revista Lucerna, molok, El Hablador and others.

Lynn White

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“Don’t you lot amalgamate round here!”
my friend’s mother used to shout
whenever she saw us playing in the street.
Am-al-ga-mate.
We loved the sound of it.
It made us laugh.
It was not a word ever heard 
in our working class street.
We didn’t know what it meant
so we looked it up
in the library’s dictionary.
Am-al-ga-mate.
What a word!
We used to gather round there
just to hear her say it,
just for a laugh.

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Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud ‘War Poetry for Today’ competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including, Apogee, Firewords, Capsule Stories, Light Journal and So It Goes. Find Lynn on her blog or Facebook.

Richard LeDue

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A Near Empty Hallway

I wait,
while you tie your shoe,
laces limp
as dead worms,
but when
has it ever been
any other way?

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Descents

Sleep brings rest to this bottomless pit.
Morning a chance to taste broken ribs,
smashed on an end table next to the bed,
my own blood
reminds me of chewed on asbestos
that politician made a joke about,
while my father held a picket sign,
gave the reporter the wrong name
to avoid upsetting the wrong people.

Sometimes I hear myself snore,
feel my body gone limp
like someone who leaped from a plane
only to realize the parachute won’t open.

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Richard LeDue was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, but currently lives in Norway House, Manitoba with his wife and son. His poems have appeared in various publications throughout 2019, and more work is forthcoming throughout 2020, including a chapbook from Kelsey Books.

Paula Wood

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Entropy
shows
its passage
like
the curling rose
like
coffee dusted
on the metal of us.

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Paula Wood lives in the North East of England and loves to write. This is the first time her poetry has been published.

Matthew Whisker

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dead bird on the bus
politicians are all shit
romance has died
all my friends are ghosts

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Matthew Whisker is a writer from Lincoln, England. He is on the autistic spectrum. He has a passion for normalising and breaking the taboo of mental health through his writing. He is currently studying at the University of Lincoln. He currently serves on the editorial team for The Lincoln Review and Bitter Fruit Review. His work has been published in several publications, including Lucky Pierre Zine and Doghouse Press. He has work forthcoming in Push Up Daisies! and Lemon Curd Magazine.

Jason de Koff

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They planted periwinkle on her plot,
but the infernal winds,
released the marrow’s moisture,
revealing the soil’s dry bones.

The dust that blew
infected airways,
poisoning the lungs and souls,
who visited afterwards.

The lashed sticks had broken,
and now lay among a detritus,
of crusted lace and broken glass,
collected along peeling fenceposts.

The sun’s rays don’t reach here,
this forgotten depression,
of how things used to be,
shrine to what could have been.

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Jason de Koff is an associate professor of agronomy and soil science at Tennessee State University.  He lives in Nashville, TN with his wife, Jaclyn, and his two daughters, Tegan and Maizie. He has published in a number of scientific journals, and recently had poetry accepted in other literary journals. His short story, ‘The Gods of Indianapolis’, was published in 2014 in the Mythic Indy anthology published by Well Done Marketing. Follow Jason on Twitter (@JasonPdK3) or Instagram (@jasondekoff).

Jasmine Flowers

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Jasmine Flowers is a well-watered poet from Birmingham, AL. Her favorite flowers should be jasmines, but she loves peonies too. She received her BA in English from the University of Alabama. Currently, she is a poetry editor for Variant Literature Journal. Her poems are published in Cypress: A Literary Journal, dreams walking, Rejection Letters, and more. Follow her on Twitter (@jas_flow).

Aaron Sandberg

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when on our porch after the first fight,
buzzing, looking to the ridge of the roof
where two weathered halves met—

some budding hive abandoned
for a better place, or equally likely,
beautifully but terribly beginning

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Aaron Sandberg resides in Illinois where he teaches. His recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Asimov’s Science Fiction, English Journal, Drunk Monkeys, The Racket, Writers Resist, Yes Poetry, Unbroken, One Sentence Poems, Vita Brevis Press, Literary Yard, and elsewhere. You might find him—though socially-distant—on Instagram (@aarondsandberg).