August 27 - Poem 27
Cheers / Zoe Berger
Why would I die?
Tits up, heart
pushing
through my chest
Why
should I die? Gotta be
in that cave
making sense of the shadows
This brief visit
goes fast enough
Thank god we didn’t find a way
to make it go faster
12 / Ashely Howell Bunn
I know two people
who broke their jaw
falling off electric
scooters riding through
the city and now I
won't let my child
ride one I know the
wind would feel so
good in her hair and
I know she needs her
freedom and there are
so many things in the
world that can hurt and
are hurting and I can't
stop all of them but I
can walk along this
cracked sidewalk with
her and hold her hand
for at least a little
longer
Mother Sea / Dahhee Chung
A cartographer beside your etherized body stretched and mounted to the cardboard backing,
Pinned you
Poked you,
Prodded you
With every contamination of earth,
Noting the fingerprints of
Djinn and faeries
That plucked you from the salty waters, satirically labeled Sirius B,
Call you siren,
Afraid to find evidence that they,
Not you,
Are the trespassers.
Marked with grids sixteen dimensions,
Protracted and scaled every emerging mountain,
And measured the streams of bleeding nile,
Bright red plague
Gridded laterally across your body,
Subjected to the self proclaimed pioneers who
Sinned on you.
After Ars Poetica / Ash Kemp
When writing an after poem,
You are a runner, with a stolen voice,
Or maybe I should say borrowed?
You are taking inspiration
And turning it into a new piece.
You are running-
with your own thoughts and limitations-
trying desperately
not to sound
like a sad imitation
of the voice that gave you
the idea in the first place.
Demi Sonnet for Dolly - Hannah Page
The new fan for our bedroom arrived today.
I was not her biggest fan, but I liked her quite a bit.
Sometimes mounting something on the wall
is the sturdiest display of love – especially when
the switch flips and I cannot hear you.
Not in the dark, not where her swan song echoes still.
She will always love us, and we’ll never have our fill.
Testimony / P.F. Potvin
screech owl whine in
bushes beyond the fence where
coyotes descend
twisting, yapping, leaping through
the pale pool of the blood moon
You know things are bad when / Janette Schafer
a smart phone tarot deck app makes clear
that you should sell your house, move to
New Hampshire
a concrete floor looks like a boon or beacon,
beckons to rest the heavy limbs
fear is the tie that binds
fear is the tie that binds
and fear is the tie that binds you
the day is made of one more step one more step
one more step
when Glen Campbell & Dolly Parton are now dead
and nothing lies gentle on your mind
and you know I will always love you
and I am weeping when I never even knew them
Untitled / Kate Thuma
2 There are
4 ways you know me
6 better than I know me.
8 More than my own brain lets me see.
10 I show my bones to you without trying.
8 They creak and flex without pushing.
6 Trees are stronger in wind.
4 Are there glimmers?
2 (There are.)
