by Linda M. Crate i will not bowsuppose i am not the perfect incantationof female they seeki am too fierce and wildrefusing to be tamedi want to be appreciated foreverything i amnot forced to change for the sake of anyone,who are they to demand thatfrom me?i am who i amand they are but men not gods,never will i surrender to Read More
Category: Rumbling Rhymes
all i’m thinking about
by Paul Robert Mullen the trees in huckleberry grove were bending touching their toes in the gustsso we drove down to the coast where boatsbobbed drunk in the stormand waves curled like hands scraping back the sand who’d have known that laterwhen clouds were sucked into science-fictionelectric white we would be saton benches / walking through pathways where birds singresting Read More
Old Journals in the Attic
by Karen Shepherd Through open doors, a waft has found an in,an entry point, a path to hidden roomsabandoned years ago. The air, so stale,holds sleeping ghosts that hang from ceiling beamsadorned with words and webs and dried bouquets.It’s not the breeze that makes them gently sway.A restlessness has been here, waiting. Lightwas needed to be shed, to break the Read More
Broken Thoughts
by Robin Ray Broken thoughts, spiraled conflicts,marriages sealed by shotgun flares, stiletto banjoes. These shoulders are trampolines. Strike and be stricken,the tallyman says. [The future might be brighter than I thought after all.] Celeste, I can’t find my slippers anymore, and there’s a boy outside, said he remembers you from a chalet in Aspen. Didn’t tip Read More
Best of the Net 2019 Nominations
Today we announce our Best of the Net 2019 Nominations. For those unfamiliar, Sundress Publications produces an annual Best of the Net Anthology to showcase online work. Submissions for the anthology, however, must come from the online publication that first shared the work online. In addition, for the 2019 anthology, the work must have appeared between July 1, 2018 and Read More
why
by Paul Robert Mullen doyou make somethingthat should feel like lovefeel like war? stretched across vast continentsmy iPhone vibrates as cities rock back and forthlike babiesin the palms of mountain ranges Paul Robert Mullen is a poet, musician and sociable loner from Liverpool, U.K. He has three published poetry collections: curse this blue raincoat (2017), testimony (2018), and Read More
Searching for Virginia
by Monica Kagan Slipping between the stones,I search for words clamped to rocks like leeches.One by one they fall and float away. Sagging into the water – she calls.Her voice penetrates my skin.Her tongue coils around my lungs. In the depths of my consciousness,thoughts splinter like a shattered vase.I lurch forward. Limbs numb,seaweed shrouds my body.Her echoes surround me. Searching Read More
For Thieves and Travelers
by Karen Shepherd Give the traveler bright moonlight but give the thief darkness. Mtembezi mpe mwezi, mpe kiza mwizi.– Swahili Proverb To thieves, give darkness. Strip the sky of stars,obstruct the paths with webs of maple roots.Hang thorny vines from broken limbs to creakin winds. Allow no safeguards in this night. Detect the hurried clamber, running farwith our character hidden Read More
Rainy Season
by Annie Bien blinds the savannahblowing toward Kilimanjaro. The horizon, streaked in dark diagonals,drains to a yawning sun, coloring cloud billows in pinks and orange. Thomson gazelles have watchedundaunted as thunderous downpourssoak their coats,for so long as hyenabellies stay round and taut,unhungry for meat and bone, the grazers can walk with ease under morning shadows. Wild Read More
i refuse to believe your lies
by Linda M. Crate so long i have seen myselfthrough the dirty lensof your eyes,but i am not not the villainyou made me out to be;and you are no victor or victimjust an insincere devil untruemasquerading as an angelperhaps you miss heavenbut you’ve fallen—you lamented once you used to knowwhat people wanted,but i think you forgot your soulwas gone along Read More