by Peggy Landsman begins by saying “Sh,”trying to hide the factthat it’s loud. Then all its letters all together,but very indirectly,shout “Hold us!” We must put our shouldersto the wheel,make the world as warm and as lovingas we believe it should be. Peggy Landsman is the author of a poetry chapbook, To-wit To-woo (Foothills Publishing). Her work has been published Read More
Tag: poetry
Bright Break
by Rickey Rivers Jr. My time away broke scenery. The protagonist found themselves in a different place and time,the antagonist nowhere around,the setting so much brighter. Oh, such brightness without you.Oh, such joy to be had.Oh, I sing a song aloud.Others stop and stare. I care not, blissful tears are sweetand my heart is like a harp. Loud is my Read More
Halves of Things
by Clara Burghelea A bruise down the thigh or sinkingteeth into another flesh. A ring of sky,or the deafening storm. Dreaming of coffee all my life, then hives.Obsessed with soft leeches,choking at the sight of blood. To have and to hold, otherwiseeasy with the in-betweens. Inksliding on paper, then softly barren. Lying on the floor with you,naming all secrets, or Read More
Rock Paintings (2)
by Don Thompson Oblivion carries out its briefagainst color, relentlesslyturning the past pewter or dunso that once vivid eventscome back to us insipid,wrapped in spider silkand sucked empty. Yokuts memories are shards, basketstattered like abandoned bird nests—grave robbers’ leavings. But some murals must endure,sequestered in caverns no one ever found,unfading chalk and graphite pigments,cinnabar and volcanic ochre yellowimported from the Read More
Home Landing
by Yuan Changming Having nothing better to do, I kill Time by looking at a traditional Chinese painting on my iPad Much enlarged, it appears like A plain sheet of rice paper Smeared with ink. I view it In the presence of bonsai; I Drop several thick strokes to the floor Of history, leaving a few Read More
Seers
by Narmadhaa Sivaraja They observe,from the sidelinesbehind human boundariesmutely. Ghosts of past,felled by hunters,now shed skins, peeling,naturally. Wheels pass by,not unlike time,in twos, threes, and sixes—boundless. Fiercely defiant,owners of the land,masked in ashen white—eucalypti. Narmadhaa (or N) writes haiku, free verse, opinion articles, and flash fiction on The Chaos Within. N has a self-published travel haiku collection on Amazon Kindle, Read More
Rock Paintings (1)
by Don Thompson Wind and rain have blurred the pictographswith spit and a calloused thumb,trying to rub them out. And yet remnants persist, ghostlyhematomas that must’ve been lurid once,and minimalist fauna,a few daubs so dead-on a child could name them:turtle, condor, antelope. Coyote eating the moon. Those and that weeping, hairy maneveryone calls Sasquatchwith shoulders hunched and claws pendant,an image Read More
An Elephantine Christmas
by Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad For Thomas Thorpe In your collection of Christmas cardsthe Peruvian nativity scene stands outnewborn hope cocooned in a cradlethe snow flecked peaks of the Andesrejoicing in the saviour’s birth. you show me the layered papyrusof an Egyptian Christmas cardwhere denizens gaze upon a stara prayer of hope and peaceupon their parted lips. then you look up Read More
Where My Heart Is
by Allan Lake As a child my whole world was a village in Saskatchewan. Home, school, shop.Long cold winter? One per year as a rule.Upon adulthood I discharged myself. What if my whole world was now EmergencyDept, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia?Electric suns would always shine. White sheetsbut no snow. People would unsoundly sleep and I’d unplug myself before going to Read More
you will surrender your life
by Linda M. Crate you think onlywerewolvesknow metamorphosis?you think onlywerewolvesknow the moon?she is my kin,my mother,to be specific;the night is when i feelmost alive—you buried me duringthe day when i was still sleepinglike the coward you were,but i woke up;and i broke out of that coffinleaving earth and your name behind me—reclaimed both my voice and my power,learned my magic Read More