Issue Two

David Appelbaum

Alphabet

With the crane's flight
ages flew past also
the babble of the crib
the child's zeal
then the frown (...)

Braille

Reading a book the man
says reading a book
the words
like a fishbone
choke on life (...)

Norman Ball

Willy Lepers (song)

Well I found an itch that can't be traced
a line too narrow aiming for the midriff
tell-tale heart and you beat the crime (...)

Jeffrey Calhoun

Love, or how lithium changed my life

for John Updike

Dearest reader, most of my cells
are no longer suspended in fluid, replaced
as if by a miracle, a heavy injection of love. (...)

John Greiner

Forward Strain

After so many
months of silently
sitting
at the ticket
counter counting
change (...)

Spengler on a Toothpick

Flow river
glass broken
tombs monk’s eyes
falling from face
the nation is in
a panic (...)

GINA

Monokus

~
swimming into the shade its shadow follows (...)

A PHOTO OF YOU TAKEN IN MOUNTAINS, SOMEWHERE

you, snowflakebearded you
smile there forever
in stainless steel light (...)

Luke MacLean

Absurd Death

Albert Camus, Albert Camus
Albert
don't look in that rear view mirror
The ocean is straight ahead
It's undertow projects your solid and liquid (...)

Anne Mullins

Man Dies, Sheep Bleat, Dog Dances

O’Malley died some twenty years ago
but when you ask about him in the pub
everybody knows you mean old Michael Joe (...)

To Go from Lvov to Djemaa el Fna

too much of Lvov
so you return to Marrakech
the square at noon a vacant mile
of dust as packed as pavement
too hot to cross (...)

Jonas Kyle-Sidell

Hipster

When it bubbles up out of frenzy – as if
assured by something – that’s the best for
him. The weight that was there has given
away what it knows, and surrendered only (...)

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Wall &Tree

by Carrie Crow.

 

artificial respiration bones & bruises & bangs & whimpers

by Peter Schwartz.

 

Fleeing the Furies Flowers & War

by Jim Fuess.

 

A Hive of Tears

by Jeff Crouch.

 

Man Dog Lamps & Swimming

by Steve Cartwright.

 

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