Joe is Making Good Money at the Brokerage

He wants a boy & will reward me for my trouble.

Back then, the passing down of lines – like God’s word invoking Eve’s loyalty. Grandpa’s on the beach drowning the horizon. The only sounds moths flying at the sun before bursting. I can feel the pink-whiskered zygote circling the womb searching for a shore to latch on to. Who am I but a siren song passed down from mother? I will never be a safe harbor. Why do we celebrate in pinks and blues before identity has time to steep? Spring is late. The lemons in the yard are green, still hard. Joe waits, palms cinched tight like a tarp over a bonfire. I press lies into ash as I birth her, a face I loved before it was fully formed. Joe is red as a thousand little papercuts. I turn away, embracing hope, the promise in this new skin.

Sheree La Puma

Sheree La Puma is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in The Penn Review, Redivider, Stand Magazine, The Maine Review, Rust + Moth, The Rumpus, Burningword, and Catamaran Literary Reader, among others. She earned her MFA in writing from CalArts. Her poetry has been nominated for Best of The Net and three Pushcarts. She has a new chapbook, ‘Broken: Do Not Use.’ (Main Street Rag Publishing) www.shereelapuma.com

The Peopling

aubade for the crescent city

 

The ‘peopling’

and you gotta

love or hate

that word

of this here

cypress swamp

river bend

is a long long

and super short

complicated

very simple

non-story

of tales

fantastical

voluminous

adding up

to something

while subtractive

of itself

about to

multiply under

the radar

like people’s

lived lives

under this here

style of

economic and

cultural dredged

collection of

impulses and

reflexes and

imaginations and

indeed peopling

of people’s

peopling

a genuine

non-story

of tales

fantastical

intermittent

fractalled

microns of

feelings and

half thoughts

processed

refined and

marked up

to epic

proportions

dimensions

to get lost in

to meet a few

flakes lost

along the way

showing the way

by tales

fantastical

luminescence

blown away

by raging

storms slammed

against walls of

institutional

administrative

ministerings of

you guessed it

a non-story

of tales

fanstastical

interruptive

blown glass

mint julip

fluted beakers

cracking up

spilling out

a micron’s

worth of

effect on

the peopling

in process

on boulevards

in alleyways

in sturdy decorative

colorful abodes

and flopping

makeshift tents

under the highway

overpass

Rodrigo Toscano

Rodrigo Toscano is a poet and essayist based in New Orleans. He is the author of ten books of poetry. His newest book is The Charm & The Dread (Fence Books, 2022). His Collapsible Poetics Theater was a National Poetry Series selection. He has appeared in over 20 anthologies, including Best American Poetry and Best American Experimental Poetry (BAX).  Toscano has received a New York State Fellowship in Poetry. He won the Edwin Markham 2019 prize for poetry. rodrigotoscano.com  @Toscano200

See

“The raft is not the shore” — Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace.

Sinless dung,

oak tree preach,

buffalo boy’s grass, bowl of milk.

Let understanding grow.

Rock, gas, mineral,

water wash feet —

cosmos meditates on cosmos.

Escape is no escape.

See suffering.

Avoid stacked coins.

Ocean salt, ashes in a velvet bag —

truth knock.

Straw on mud,

blanket on concrete,

hydrant draped in silk.

Work no harm.

Gaze, even on vomit.

Vent noxious.

Bike monk,

breakfast with tree,

84,000 doors,

a raft, a finger pointing.

No browbeating.

No gossiping.

No lying.

Cloud in paper,

waiting for hawk flight.

Footprint of a prophet,

ripped veil.

Let live.

Answer door.

See.

Afraid of height, terrored of road,

insect-burdened, undesiring,

plant blank paper.

Every manner of thing will be well.

Book not yet performed.

Translate a single bird song.

Patrick T. Reardon

Patrick T. Reardon, a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, has authored eleven books, including the poetry collections Requiem for David (Silver Birch), Darkness on the Face of the Deep (Kelsay) and The Lost Tribes (Grey Book). Forthcoming is his memoir in prose poems Puddin’: The Autobiography of a Baby (Third World). His website is patricktreardon.com. His poetry has appeared in Rhino, Main Street Rag, America, Autumn Sky, Burningword Literary Journal and many others. His poem “The archangel Michael” was a finalist for the 2022 Mary Blinn Poetry Prize.

Cathy Hollister

The Local

 

oak and leather corner pub

warm glow of Guinness

tensions softly fold to sighs

beyond these walls

irrelevance

 

Speakers

Eyes

That widen in surprise

Tear in sympathy

Smile

Pen

That writes of playful things

Whose ink spills out in flourishes

Drawing pictures in words

Laptop

That clicks with musical beat

Whose letters speak to screen

In engineered friendship

Screen

That explodes, whispers, cries

a tale I don’t want to hear

but I can’t turn off

Hands

That speak of love

With the softest caress

on the cheek

Voice

Muffled by mask

That can’t hide the smile

In the eyes

Ode to Candle Stub

Wax almost spent, wick bent and blackened

dripping life blood of self in service

sleeping old soldier

bivouacked in the back of the drawer

Ignored

found when pawing for pen or twist tie

always ready, willing to accept

the sweet kiss of fire, illumine

the great pool of dark as strong as

younger, taller, more fortified

tapering heights

Service to the end of life

Service to the depths of self

Service highly valued

to the stubby end

Cathy Hollister

Cathy Hollister is an older writer whose poetry often explores the treasures embedded in age, isolation, and continual readjustments. When not writing you might find her on the dance floor enjoying the company of friends or deep in the woods basking in the peace of solitude. Her work has been in Silent Spark Press, Humans of the World Blog, Open Door Magazine, Beyond Words Magazine, The Ekphrastic Review, Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, Poet’s Choiceanthologies, and others. She lives in middle Tennessee.

Miss You and the Blue Jean Hat

Would love to bake chocolate chip cookies again with you.  Do not

care if we ate all the dough and had no cookies to eat.  Miss you.

Come as you are.  Do not care if there’s bones, skin, or nothing.  As long

as it’s you.  I will know you by your laugh or simply your touch.  Miss

you.  We never did get to run that half marathon together.

Was run in your honor.  A full too.  When you come please bring that

cheesy pepperoni bread.  Soooo delicious.  Have not been

able to duplicate it.  The cheese melts into the dough and it’s terrible

re-heated.  Think it’s the wrong kind of dough.  You would know.

Miss you.  Heartbreaking life experiences shatter.  I’m sorry.

I am sorry I failed you.  Would love to hug you.  Hard.  Kiss your check.

Your forehead.  Hug you again.  To many unsaid goodbyes.  I know

you said goodbye before you left forever.  Knew it.  Felt it.

Here.  Inside.  Look for you in my dreams … into that wide darkness … can’t

find you.  Will forever Miss You.  Riding brought you so much joy … exuberance.

You wanted to go faster and faster … as fast as the horse’s hooves would

run … which now pound my heart … my head.  It’s almost spring.

Daffodils sprouting and covered in snow.  You loved their yellow happiness.

I remember you telling me how pissed you were with your mom for making

you pick the ones in the field.  Planting time.  Dogs running through the

garden … playfully trampling all your plants.  We are all dog hoarders now.  Miss you.

The sea is calling.  We can walk on the beach.  Looking for sand dollars, shells,

and starfish.  Let me know where to meet.  We’ll both show up.  Bring that

blue jean hat we all loved.  The one where your white blond uncontrollable curls

tumble out.  We have so much to catch up on.  I want to hear all about

Heaven … how you’re doing.  I’ll bring the cheesy pepperoni bread and flowers.

Daffodils or Sunflowers?  The new dog will be on a leash.  You’ll love him.

He’s a foodie too.  Any time.  Any place.  Or just the dining room table.

That’s fine too.  Just come.

MD Bier

MD Bier is a binge reader and you’ll always find a book with her. Her writing reflects her passion for social change and social issues. Being part of the Project Write Now Community is where she writes and studies poetry. She has been published in the Write Launch, Humans of the World, New Brunswick Poetry Anthology, and the New Brunswick Windows on the World. MD Bier lives in NJ with her family and dog.

Still Life with Pet Turtle and Hanging Boy

Dear Tina,

Is it possible your turtleness has something to sing?

Bought with a boy’s allowance, you’ve learned

a new word: plunder, a contribution

to mid-grade reptilian literature.

Is it possible a diva like you

is drawn to a spot of light? You were there

that day with the boy in his room. You seem

desperate to speak. Perhaps some ember of his

infiltrated your shell. He couldn’t sing

either. His head was your Goodyear blimp.

Now, all the lonely hours you’ve shredded.

What were you thinking as he hung there?

The world has many competent turtle people,

but I’m not one of them. I’m sorry.

I tried to give you away but you’re

one of the most invasion species here.

All the turtle literature warned against

plopping red-eared sliders into random habitats.

And now you have mental health issues. You

seem urgent. O Tina, tell me you miss

that boy, that body you watched grow up,

appearing and disappearing like a

companionship of wind, suddenly still,

then gone. Still. Gone.

Brian Builta

Brian Builta lives in Arlington, Texas, and works at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. He has recently published poems in Jabberwock Review, Juke Joint Magazine, and South Florida Poetry Journal, with poems forthcoming in New Ohio Review and TriQuarterly.

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