by Kristin Garth You were aware of mermaids in the sky,fenestrated fins swimming by since youare old enough to be outside alone. Whytheir pallor ash, collective moans imbuesfew fears of what was well known at daybreakseven years old. Magical was mundaneand manifold as silver rain in lakesabandoned by the dead. Mermaiden painschools overhead. Two innocent relatedinheritors of a haunting hate Read More
Tag: poetry
Paragraphiti On The Cusp Of Living With Olives
by Gerard Sarnat You walk into the room With your pencil in your hand You see somebody naked And you say, “Who is that man?” You try so hard But you don’t understand Just what you’ll say When you get home.– Bob Dylan, Ballad Of A Thin Man i. I don’t remember when The Pilgrim’spork pie hat & suit bobbed Read More
She Looks Exactly Like a Trap
by Kristin Garth Tendrils to tails, they circumnavigatea naked girl, bloom crowned, against tree trunkstoo late. Mermaiden ghosts tread air irate,retreat to appease queen’s dictates — swim, slunk, away, to wisdom pooled. They theorize,a spectral mermaid school, why would she sitin shivered fright, flesh sodden pink, unwise,unclothed, alone, midnight? It’s counterfeit coincidence — pretense of confidence,a doppelgänger of the dead, Read More
Let Him Know
by Kristin Garth She will not ask you to explain. Evenhalf women comprehend who is to blamefor plots where girls remove their clothes — reasonyou sit, alone, exposed in frigid shame, shuddering chest. She will approach you slowwith only one request — when he would kissthis poisoned neck, taste his death, let him knowthe cause was disrespect — damsels dismissed Read More
Palimpsest
by Lynne Cattafi The boozy neighbor who said it was timeto “get the hell outta Dodge” packed up his car and left,unsentimental.The bumper, flaked and rusted,the muffler backfiringin a final fuck you to the old neighborhood.What’s left behind?A small toy elephant lost years agogathers dust under the radiator.Deep scratches in the worn floor which served as a map,places to avoid Read More
A Practical Guide to Confronting Racism
by Dani Putney I can’t take my eyes off:You clasp a chilled Coors Light,shuffle Ariat boots,adjust your rodeo hat.The girl to your left tells a story,maybe about her day at work,maybe nothing at all.Your crush is obvious despitethe flames in my eyes,the bonfire between us,the smoke engulfing my brain. It’s possible she doesn’t knowwhat you’re hiding behinda hazel gaze and Read More
what we can learn from water
by Mia Wright freeze.do not be afraid of rigidmoments in this lifefor we all harden.sometimesthere is not enough warmthto sustain us, but waterteaches leaves and riverseach winterto get still and let go:of undulating in riverbedsof painting the trees in brilliant greenof life as we know it.encased in the silenceof icy immobilityis a promise of something new.just wait.you will thawand live, Read More
Sin Within
by Rickey Rivers Jr. A shower every hour to wash the skin I’m in.To wash away the sin I’m in, to wash off the sin within. Nightmares wake me.Air inhaled cinnamon. I can’t apologize for other men who sin.Just for myself and all that I hold in. Hot water washes it away, helps me see another day. Vividly, with red Read More
you can tell me i’m wrong
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
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