Tag: Poem

Elizabeth Guilt

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From my window I read the lines worn into grass by tramping feet,
Curved paths defying straight asphalt show the road more travelled.
A blabbermouth thread of brown earth betrayed the gap in the fence,
Another counted those who slipped from playground to coffee shop.
These everyday desires are dwindling, overtaken by circumstance.
New routes reveal our new longing: to walk safely in solitude.

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Elizabeth Guilt lives in London, where history lurks alongside plate glass office buildings and stories spring out of the street names. She has had fiction published in Luna Station Quarterly, All Worlds Wayfarer, and The Gray Sisters. You can find her on her website or Twitter (@elizabethguilt).

Anthony Salandy

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Roll on as pastries amass on arcane tables,
Just buckling with pressure,
But levity may be mistaken

From familial angst
That bares down on middle-aged delusions
No longer sanctimonious

Only prey to sudden aging
And demented men
Who force strange questioning to ensue,

Abrupt in its wondering
Just why mores must be clasped
In the farcical hands of men

Who act like a plexus of grains,
Stored in cold bins
And cumulated in glorious ignorance.

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Anthony Salandy is a mixed-race poet and writer whose work tends to focus on social inequality throughout late-modern society. Anthony travels frequently and has spent most of his life in Kuwait jostling between the UK & America. His work has been published 130 times. Anthony has one published chapbook titled The Great Northern Journey and is the Co-Eic of Fahmidan Journal. Find him on Twitter/Instagram (@anthony64120) or his website.

Richard LeDue

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Mick Foley falling off a sixteen foot steel cage
seems further away now –
the teeth coming through his nostrils
harder to cheer for
because of bruises on my son’s forehead
after headbutting the fridge
again
when his tablet’s battery died
and a conversation about a helmet
I never thought I’d have.

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Richard LeDue was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, but currently lives and teaches in Norway House, Manitoba. His poems have appeared in various publications throughout 2020, and more work is forthcoming throughout 2021. His chapbook, The Loneliest Age, was released in October 2020 from Kelsay Books.

Adam Day

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Sleeping on Meserole
out in the rain. Ground
talks. Different time
experience. Shake
the gutter and pull
a dollar out. Kids watching,
torching boredom.

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Adam Day is the author of Left-Handed Wolf (LSU Press, 2020) and Model of a City in Civil War (Sarabande Books). He was received a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship for Badger, Apocrypha, and a PEN Award. He is the editor of the forthcoming anthology, Divine Orphans of the Poetic Project (1913 Press), and his work has appeared in the APR, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Volt, Kenyon Review, Iowa Review, and elsewhere. He is the publisher of Action, Spectacle.

Michael McGill

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Monika says

it succinctly:
“You end 
up lonely

or trapped.”

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Michael McGill is a poet from Edinburgh, Scotland who has recently been published in Lunate, 433, Dream Journal, Lucky Pierre, Stone of Madness Press, Dreams Walking, Milly Magazine, Versification, The Daily Drunk, Rejection Letters, FEED, 24 Unread Messages, The Cabinet of Heed and detritus. His overheard comments and photopoems also regularly appear on Twitter (@MMcGill09) and Instagram (@michael7209).

Philip Berry

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Philip Berry‘s poems have appeared in Black Bough Poetry, Lucent Dreaming, Poetry Birmingham and Lunate Fiction. He is a hospital doctor working in London. You can see more of his work on his website or on Twitter (@philaberry).

Yuu Ikeda

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The truth was burnt,
became ashes,
and they were scattered in the wind.

Nobody knows where the ashes go.

Someday,
broken pieces of the truth will rot on the ground.

Although the sky is clear and blue, and there are no shadows of clouds,
ashes of the truth that cloud the ground
are wandering slowly and secretly.

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Yuu Ikeda is Japanese. Her poem ‘Sinful Silhouette’ was published in the online journal Rigorous. Read more of her poetry on her website.

DS Maolalai

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fallon sends a message;
he can’t make it 
out tonight. 
he’s somehow  
snagged an interview;  
must keep his head  
on tight. I tell him 
that’s ok,  
and that we’ll raise one 
in his honour. drink a toast 
with bats 
to fruiting trees 
of opportunity.

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DS Maolalai has been nominated eight times for Best of the Net and four times for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry has been released in two collections, “Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden” (Encircle Press, 2016) and “Sad Havoc Among the Birds” (Turas Press, 2019).

Kim Michalak

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Dead Upon Arrival

I awoke from visions of birthing
            two virile green snakes from my chest
            just beneath the right collarbone,
            the third left decaying inside me
Triplets of time: past, present, &
            future dead upon arrival

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What the Flowers Know

The scent of lilies followed us
home from the hospital in a swollen
blue vase deemed appropriate
to welcome our little boy.
Dead center of the dining table,
they filled our modest rental
with a memorial smell,
lingering whisper of death.
Four times a night I closed my eyes
to flashes of my baby asphyxiating —
(SIDS a looming reaper)
& each time I awoke to hungry cries
their scent reminded me
I have no idea how to keep my boy alive.

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Kim Michalak is a Florida-based poet, mother, and optical stylist. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Chatham University and serves as an associate poetry editor for The Fourth River. Her works can be found in Brushing, Rose Red Review, and Snapdragon: A Journal of Art & Healing. 

Jeff Burt

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I prefer to slip back through the ear,
ignoring the common portal of throat,

sliding past the anvil, hammer, and stirrup
so quietly I cannot hear myself come in,

though often I am caught repeating
the echoing walls of the heart.

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Jeff Burt lives in California and works in mental health. He has contributed to Tar River Poetry, Sheila-Na-Gig, and Williwaw Journal.