To work jointly with others writing in prose or verse
Live Last read · last published · next check
Lilac Knot Image: Ksenia Frantsuzova by Yongbo Ma for Nolcha Fox Purple mist weaves the mood of spring, Soft winds bear fragrance far to bring. Each bloom hides knots of thoughts untold, Breeze drifts, and scents the courtyard hold. It never vies with blossoms' grace, Pure simple joys fill all your space. The worldly cares that come and go, You laugh, and let them softly flow. Yongbo’s translation…
Displaced by Colleen M. Farrelly, Terri L. French, and Bryan Rickert Image: Fallon Michael A whiff of cappuccino mixed with scones wafts into the loft rafters, a remnant of the water flushing station abutting Bradford Beach. I curl into a counter overhang—my books cramming the empty seat beside me and my GRE flashcards sprawling between a muffin and mocha: doleful, disconsolate, dirge… But none…
Park swings by Nolcha Fox and Ken Tomaro Image: Ethan Brooke with long chains launch me through space, let me fly with the birds, as my legs punch big holes in the summer heat ripples, and burn this small memory into my skull. Park swings, I am an Olympic gymnast. A tuck, triple somersault, Barani flip into a flawless dismount. Feet planted firmly in the dirt. Arms held high and perfectly…
Paraenesis Mary Stebbins Taitt, Geraldine Saves the Worms After Hala Alyan Barely six miles and the roads were ropes of ghosts. Today I cut calories but at night I eat worms. There is nothing more terrible than waiting for the terrible. I promise. There is always the wolf that breaks you and the wolf that turns you back. Animals. A fog that took days to leave her hair. I was never supposed to stay…
Commitments by Kenneth M. Kapp Photo by Julianna Kapp Ossie liked to run trails, especially ones with lots of hills. He still did yoga a couple of times a week; being open and limber, he could fly down the hills with confidence. He typically saved his big run for Sunday, but last week had been rough, and then his fight with Angie Friday night, when she reminded him that they had agreed at the…
Jim Morrison Memorial Haiku by Richard Garcia, Richard Green, and Katherine Williams Nirvana L.A. opening patrons ignore art and talk Kurt Cobain’s shotgun —Katherine Williams Double Trouble When the weather is bad… go IFR. When it’s really bad… go VFR. — reddit.com/r/flying Clean and sober, whole show misadventured. Weather nobody could stand —Katherine Williams Life by the Drop The sky is…
Rise by Bob McAfee Photography by Judy Lipsky I want to leave the nest and rise so high I never will return to earth, but from their hatchling birth my nestlings depend on me for life. There are these little mouths to feed, beaks upturned, unbroken wall of cries. I am the one to intercede with death as among the twigs and leaves they lie. One day I’ll teach my fledgling babes to fly, soar and gain…
The Irony Man, or Ted Whiter Than Ever by Jake Lynch Did he drive her to it, God? That’s what we want to know, Crow crew. So tell us. Send a sign. Else what’s the point of you, disgusted and divine? She was on her tod, with kids in tow – then dead. Syl could not be Syl if Ted was Ted. Things fell apart. Talons clenched her heart. Tell, crew Crow, as the irony grew. Still, Ted wasn’t to know sexual…
Blue Boats by Sean Ewing Sean Ewing, Sails at Dawn Ecclesiastes 3:6 “a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,” I held the dock rope too long and called it care. Blue paint rubbed my palms where the hull knocked wood. The left sail lifted then sagged against its mast. Gold water broke apart under the boat's blunt bow. You stood near the rigging where the mast…
Gem by Lakshman Bulusu Image: Pattaya International hundredth birthday radiance of your success a halo your rare brotherhood poems shining together the many days we spent on pilgrimages my divine blossoms your math mentoring Morning Glory every day your help to kith and kin still breathes new stars a century too short you still shine dawn to dawn
Every Breath by Helen Pletts and Yongbo Ma Image: Jakub Skafiriak Every breath I take is like a spark of a cat bonfire my pursed lips, dipped in yellow and white mist, have kissed openings Perhaps the mists, which are condensing into some indescribable forms, rise from the depths beyond our reach created by sunlight, through which my tongue might pursue air and fragments of disorientated light, if…
Opening Notes by Lakshman Bulusu, Jackie Chou, and Kathabela Wilson Image: Tao Yuan A three-person Star-ku LB : last ripples of green the sky gives a bow to rustling pines JC : first fallen petals of the white roses a dream of snow KW : continuously flying in the wind bright yellow leaves JC : news of your return the cobalt feather of a swallow LB : colors’ early blush start of fresh ginkgos…
The Gulf by Alan Newton and Ed Ruzicka Image: JOGphotos I But yet, he wonders, doesn’t my and the ant’s walking count for something, lead on? II In Louisiana, among great dollops of cumulus where dusk slips down its holy rays, there often is a gulf between the man his mother raised him to become – the daylight man – and the shadow twin who closes bars at night, the one who watches from the…
