She’s tethered to me, I’m lashed to you,
you’re snapped onto him, and he’s
gone, all gone.
I suppose we’re all goners
in the Let’s-Make-An-Us game,
no longer able to start a match anew,
toting our baggage along—
either dreams-gone-wrong
or unreal ideals that we steal
from the stories we hear.
The need to pair starts at the atom.
We’re just adhering to nature—
free-radical reactions taking what we need
from what we next rub up against,
while I search for signs of life
on all my devices
so many ways to stay silent
ghosting
presumes you’re coming back
if only in dreams or memories
maybe that’s why I continue
to play these games
in reality they actually can
and he cannot
brink and teeter nominal approach amidst the expected disarray empty vessels side by side softly into the heavy night as blank screens stare back wide and beauty seems beyond reach in the blue darkness of our lost ways all the ways up and more to fall these walls climb my dreams down from mountains the […]
Read more "brink and teeter"Gareth Culshaw lives in Wales. His first collection of poetry is The Minerout (2018) by Futurecycle. In 2020, his second collection, called Shadows of Tryfan is released. He is currently on an MFA at Manchester Met. His biggest poetry fans are his two dogs, Jasper & Lana. My Ears Wake First This early in the […]
Read more "My Ears Wake First"Peter Crowley is an independent writer and scholar with a M.S. in Conflict Resolution, Global Studies from Northeastern University. He works as Content Specialist/Production Coordinator for a prominent library science company. For fun, he plays in bluesy rock band around the Boston/NYC area. His writings can be found in Boston Literary Magazine, Mondoweiss, Mint Press News, […]
Read more "Those who hold up the earth"Mark Jackley‘s most recent book of poems is On the Edge of a Very Small Town. His work has appeared in Sugar House Review, Fifth Wednesday, Talking River, Timberline Review, and other journals. He lives in Purcellville, VA. Clemens Kalischer In his pictures of people arriving from Europe after the war, his subjects are bone […]
Read more "Clemens Kalischer"Small is huge, Wells Fargo tells us with a Pleasantville main street gloss. It’s tough to admit when a cynical corporate slogan hits the mark, but I can’t think of a better way to describe Portland’s Future Tense Press and its portfolio of literary fire-starters. Run by literary community extraordinaire and Powell’s ambassador Kevin Sampsell, […]
Read more "Dreaming Fantastical Stories: Szilvia Molnar"I’m filling my Earl Grey tea cup this morning at work when the weirdest water cooler conversation bubbles up. “Let me ask you a strange question.” I smile nervously, “OK.” “You ever close your eyes and press your fingers into your eyelids?” “Yeah, fireworks light show.” “Exactly!” He flutters his eyes closed and lightly demonstrates […]
Read more "On Floaters and Flashes"It’s all about confidence, they said. You have to have as much chutzpah as all those dudes who self-publish poem after poem about road kill and baseball, girls, their fathers, chess, sailing, yeats’ gyre and bukowski’s pocked face. I was bold to write aloud before three teachers said they liked my poems. I got excited […]
Read more "My Life As a Published Man"What made it all worse was that you had this dream of being a messenger of death. Because in this dream, the news of death was delivered to the individual by a series of worker bees, like yourself, who gave the mortal person a hand-written letter. The hand wrote in a large scrawl and was […]
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