by Millicent Borges Accardi There was a boat, there were many boats,patterned after a fashion into a fleet.There were Portuguese widows who prayedand those who sang of sailors and their strong sea,amid the sky that we wore like a cape.There was a yellow radiance of sunset and howit used to be. Please, ask me, husband, and I will bringyou a Read More
Category: Rumbling Rhymes
Shouldn’t Mother Be A Song?
by Prosper Enotor Path these curtains to my childhood, let in some light. This poem is the clattering of a coin toss in a room the beep of a c-4 seconds away from explosion. At age four i first learn to nod, to balance day and night on my tongue.then, pain was not having enough toy to fill the Read More
Writing Suicide Notes in the Bluebird
by David L O’Nan I was writing on notebook paperRed-bumped tongue sticking like glue to the roof of a dry mouthDecember weakens meMy bones and all my thoughtsCan’t dream in the pillars of orgasmsWhen our ecosystems begin crashing in declining health I freeze to your scarsAnd grew hungry in all of your fearsThe stairs and the elevatorsThe storms and the Read More
The Armadillo
by Jerry K. Robbins Of all creatures the armadillo is most fineIt is one part turtle one part porcupineChasing bugs with an anteater snoutStubby legs to waddle about Known to speak French with savoir faireAlso a sense of humor rareA preference for puns and plays on wordsFits in comfortably with computer nerds So, when my friends ask me,“Ever had one Read More
Lost My Voice
by Joan McNerney Around the house under the bed,on top of book shelves,perhaps flung over my closet door,or hidden inside cubby holes. Have to look for it at all my usual haunts.Check out the library, ask my pharmacist,circle gas stations and stomp up downthat damn old supermarket. Not anywhere… geez this is tiringbetter sit down and think.When did I last Read More
The Pushcart Prize 2020 Nominations
With this week’s theme of “Endings,” we thought it appropriate to share our nominations for The Pushcart Prize 2020. For those unfamiliar, Pushcart Press produces a yearly anthology to showcase work from small book presses and little magazines. (Despite the pachyderm, we’re really a little fish, so you know.) Submissions for the anthology, however, must come from the online publication Read More
class: aves; kind: unknown
by Ahimaz Rajessh the bird that swoops downtearing through noxious clouds,being no bird of prey, lives onlyon chemical, nuclear wastes. the beats of its wings, they say, changethe course of impending cyclones.its beak digs through containers shippedfrom global north, buried in global south. its breath lights up spying glo-geodrones & electromagnetic spectrum.the whiff of its feather, they say,brings to mind Read More
Hard Rule Enclosing
by Michael Igoe Swindled by awetaken from othersit held me fromsaved, raptured momentsIt’s frolic, a panic;the count of blood dropsin the heave of the gut.It reaps a cryptic fortuneunleashed, in vast array,makes a deal like madwith uninvited guests.Unsure, motive grows clearerin the twilight of my lifetimeI someday must clear out.My secret battle with time,Does it freeze within me? Michael Igoe, Read More
Plane Takes Off from Chicago
by Thomas Murray Plane takes off from Chicago; touches down in Orange County.One with a young man; the other with another, bald and gray.In between many worlds, lives, and dreams passed by.Bound to a god I can never see, but sure I feel It with me. Going from the Gobi to the 405 is a full-time job.My thoughts like winter Read More
fragmented no. 8
by DAH 1. … from now on, a reshuffling of diction,word-acrobatics, perspectives gleaming withnew realities: somebody built an orange treeagainst the other things around it, to feaston boiled eggs in the cold hand of a plate,the convulsions of the world can only goso far: it’s a matter of course … … regression is a retelling of history, mind-formsthat are slipping: Read More