March - Poem 20

Stars   / Kathleen Bednarek

There is fired chaos
And with a jagged eye 
It is cut to likeness—

Soften the gaze  
Don’t break…

It is possible to reach all sides
Even though you cannot see us
In an afternoon 

West of spider and swan

For the inside of how you touch
Is formed wholly 
Of what happened to make light

Even the fly 
Without a wide mind
Has taken off

The dark distance 
In its eyes

Threat at the border / Mymona Bibi

there is a difference between border and boundary 
when we touch your border softens 
melts into mine
not everyone has learnt to blur that way 
kissing you is a lesson 
in silence and borderless belonging 
not every body has found 
yet here I am searching
pulling open the flesh of a date
checking for pests in the dark fibres
between us.
I never find anything 
listing boundaries 
not knowing I’m standing
right at the border
this formation is not an accident.
yet here I am searching 
fingers tracing foreign scars
like a wandering drunk 
after midnight
both threatening 
                       to find
                                  to love
                                              to lose 

The Coach and the Gym Teacher’s Baby / Susan Hankla

After school 
I always walked
from Richlands High 
to Gateway 
Shopping Center
across a strip of land
to Gateway
Drug Company, 
where Dad 
filled
prescriptions.
And see
their baby 
in a carrier
in the shade 
in the 
navy blue 
Fiat 
in the parking lot. 
Coach Jones 
and Sandy, 
his wife,
the gym teacher, 
talked about the baby.
I knew it was their car.
No one else in the mountain town
owned a Fiat.
A Fiat is an Italian car.

What we need to remember  / Amy Haworth

What this country has done
Makes my blood boil
Makes me recoil
What this country has done.

Makes my blood boil
Memorials torn down
By self-appointed crown
Makes my blood boil.

Memorials torn down
Erasing what we need to remember
Will the world exist in September?
Memorials torn down.

Erasing what we need to remember
What this country has done
By majority votes won
Erasing what we need to remember.

What this country has done
Makes my blood boil
Makes me recoil
What this country has done.

I Want to Become this Woman / Christina McCleanhan

Last night i dreamt
i was
        squishing blackberries
between pointer and thumb
dirt, seed, fragrance
childhood

       thawing as
spring berries burst
through last season’s
broken promises

i long to marry the earth

Deadline  / Elizabeth McGraw

I lean in and turn on seeking to Devine the creative spark.

Coffee in hand and daylight high I am overwhelmed with my choices and seek a routine.

It’s go time and I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. 

Waiting for applause or the silent eyes looking back at me.

JoJo / Alexis Wolfe

got to thinking about jojo his whole face a tattoo how when I made him and kindred dippy eggs their golden disks flying he said I could never do that eyes like balloon animals every time they fought or I brought home coffee   we corralled nubian goats stalking Japanese knotweed across townish city sidewalks we lived for free took an RV just to pick up pizzas and skip rocks where the Monongahela ran thin / I never saw him again   heard he got picked up for arson in West Virginia  asked for a shot after close bartender called him crazy  said here's crazy flipped a match behind their backs caught the dumpster on fire I mean half the building   got caught speeding near Wheeling but heard he got out  heard he wore horsehair to the Louisiana derby  tye dyed T-shirts at his brother's birthday party started howling in Vermont sang ditties with some boundless jason ended up back where he came from