Flounce skirted stranger orders a bourbon, stares only at a reflection between the bottles. Nate the piano player pounds out “Honolulu Baby” even though Hawai’i will not be discovered for a dozen years. “Sandwich Island Baby” doesn’t sound as good, I guess. The two brothers sit beyond the ell, toss back kamikazes, bet which one… Read More My Little Chickadee ~ poetry by Robert Beveridge

Sure there’s contour among the bodies in the bushes, as there are notebooks on the flora. It’s the coughing that’s unnerving idolatry, haltering. May as well be at the beach, staring. I was just walking my dog, man. The cars came around the corner fast their high beams blinding me momentarily. I saw little else… Read More As Joseph Adjusts His Charisma ~ poetry by Colin James

(1) WEIRD AIRPLANE It’s a local. It makes landings in every major city. They announce the stops beforehand, both over the intercom and on those silly mini-TV’s that drop down in that pretentious way. However, if nobody pulls the cord it skips that stop. So watch and listen carefully. Check your schedule frequently. Don’t get… Read More 11 Dreams of Weird Societal Offerings ~ poetry by Marion Deutsche Cohen

Semis pass us like angry marked beasts. A zit on my chin festers and throbs. Already I see red. Pastor Pete mouths along with Revelation on cassette.  I picture Henry Rollins and see red. With feeling, the solitary refinement of your room spits you back out, I’ll practice saying instead. This bed and breakfast smells… Read More Sam’s Seven Bowls of Wrath: a Ghazal ~ poetry by Ann Stewart McBee

Frank Beltrano has written a poem and folded it into a paper airplane that was found and read and liked. That summer men landed on the moon. More recently, he has had two poems ride the London, Ontario buses, had a poem printed on a postcard, had the same award-winning poem printed on 1,000 posters.… Read More Woman in the Doorway ~ poetry by Frank Beltrano

The Problem is Casual As you learned, The Problem is casual. Where you throw Fragments can help Tame the luck If you want to create. Focus on, Kings to distinguish. Interesting, Personal thoughts. Categories, Content, Images, Audio, Video, Tags, Overcomplicate. Phillip McCollum is finally figuring out what he wants to be when he grows up,… Read More Found Poetry in a Technical Manual ~ poetry by Phillip McCollum

Love is    Love is a dog from hell Love is a four letter word        Love is a many splendored thing    Love is a pie Love is a place          Love is colder than death    Love is the crooked thing Love is the measure        Love is the silence      Love is the sum of it all * We… Read More Five Poems Found in the Database of the UC Berkeley Library ~ poetry by Glenn Ingersoll

Sofa Surfer Blues  I drank myself last night and I tasted of oblivion. Keep on swinging madly across the sun Mr Dylan, I could never keep up with you I’m in a war of words with the verse endless invisible unknowable in my head riding in on your sofa surfer blues.  “Poetry is dead!” shouts… Read More Two Poems ~ poetry by David Dobson

Diagnosis: Evil A sarcastic poem based on Wikipedia’s “Sarcoidosis” page. This page was last edited on 4 October 2017, at 05:22. A given governing your heart is a disease involving abnormal collections of dissident cells that form lumps known as deciders. The deicide usually begins in the lungs, skin or second thoughts. Less commonly affected… Read More Two Poems ~ poetry by Jake Sheff

You’ve never taken Sparta Road    or kept an austere house. On Lone Pine Mountain,    you’ve never stood alone or climbed its high roads    to the peak above Virtue Flat. You’ve never stayed in Bates,    where the directory notes no hotel, all lodging primitive.    Days from now in Baker City you won’t eat one baked cake,… Read More Self as Map, as Land ~ poetry by Laura Madeline Wiseman

Alexandra is from a po’ dunk town in central Florida. Her poetry was featured in The Wolfian twice, as well as The Zombie Logic Review, 8 West Press, Over Watch Press, and most recently, appeared in two separate issues of Torrid Literature. She released her first published poetry collection, The Angels’ Trumpets, last year thanks to Purple Unicorn Media.… Read More Thoughts ~ poetry by Alexandra the Great

Gregory Kimbrell is the author of The Primitive Observatory (Southern Illinois University Press, 2016), winner of the 2014 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Manticore—Hybrid Writing from Hybrid Identities, Alcyone, Whatever Our Souls, Parentheses, Blackbird, and other publications. He is the events and programs coordinator… Read More 取り除き Torinozoki (Deinstallation) ~ poetry by Gregory Kimbrell

Patient #2649: Arrival God save me. God could not. Safe here away from him, or nearer. A door. Another (door after door) and I open. I open my bags. They’ve emptied (me). They’ve taken her. God (be with me) let me keep the baby. I’ve not had time to finish her blanket. The final door.… Read More Five poems ~ poetry by Tina Parker

Imagine the warrior princess Leaning against a sword almost As big as she. Terrible twin breasts Are barely contained in a brief Animal skin bra, and her own un-road-mapped skin Dips into brave loincloth half G-string, half suggestion. Uncovered Arms and pole-dancer thighs. All the boys would want To be heroically with her. Their fathers,… Read More Institutionalized Temptation ~ poetry by Ken Poyner

After “The Snow Man” by Wallace Stevens and “Because I could not stop for death – (479)” by Emily Dickinson Because one must stop winter’s mind – though I could not have death – the forest’s rearguard held its snow as kindling bowed to crust. Like sour elves, immortal carnage slowly stooped. The pine-trees drove… Read More Triple-Bubble Puddle: The Satiety of Influence ~ poetry by Jake Sheff

Nourishing Traditions Two words meant to soothe. Even the cover of this cookbook appeals— palm trees, shepherds, sheaves of wheat in drawings that frame the title below a sleepy sun. Traditional recipes sound like a great idea, back to basics, natural ingredients, no added chemicals or preservatives. I’m gung-ho, ready to jump in the pot,… Read More Nourishing Traditions ~ poetry by Joan Mazza

How to Drink Yourself Sober Step Four, Into the Land of Nod Creation gave us the inquisition. Ripe erotic Old Testament Blues with a flat Midwestern accent. She’s a murder ballad with a happy ending, has a story for every place she’s never been. Our whole fable takes place before there were angels. The sky… Read More How to Drink Yourself Sober ~ poetry by Alex Stolis

Theater Recluses They never leave.  Dress rehearsal in an hour.  The stage is the cage where dreams battle to become more ludicrous than you.  We received our lines for the day backstage.  The band sat up awaiting direction.  Tickets sold.  The lights came down.  The curtains were drawn.  Makeup people, costume people, stage craft, management,… Read More Two poems ~ poetry by Al Simmons

words can come to have no meaning if you look at them a certain way wordscancometohavenomeaningifyoulookatthemacertainway w ordsc anc ometoh aven omea ningi fyoul ooka tthemac er tainw ay word scan co meto ha venom ean in gif youlo okat hema certa inway wo rd sc an co me to ha ve no me an… Read More words can come to have no meaning ~ poetry by Paula Donovan

inconsiderate spectre clothes w/ bullet-holes in them on display in shop windows / teenagers berate their parents for being married for so long, all the cool kid’s parents got a divorce [a long time ago!] / no love letters for the lonely no wave no gentle kisses good-bye / Don’t pray for me pray for… Read More Two poems ~ poetry by William Jackson

The boldest man might have shrunk, riding around of nights, beyond the reach of the warm grasp. Loss of time, Reason to fear, Worn with travel, Defeated. Compelled to flee to the defense of their hearth,    traitors, at heart, Surrender. Parting must come, Utterly,    in the end. Rosa Jivani is an x-ray technician in the… Read More Hidden verse in Harry Castlemon’s Rodney the Overseer (1892) ~ poetry by Rosa Jivani

It starts … With a woman Beyond youthful giggles Accent thick Old-country rhythm A life’s experiences Wisps of gray Glasses perched It starts … With a boy Bright eyes glimmering Gloomy bodega Coins in hand Jingle, fade He dances foot to foot Asks for a Coke Quick and shy It starts … With a car… Read More It starts … ~ poetry by Mark Paxson

beautiful eyes see the ugliness of the world a [tall] woman in a blue polka dot dress stand[s] alone by a window in a  library[. She’s] looking off somewhere, hands holding each other,  nervous and unresponsive to the voice that’s speaking to her.  decisions [are] being made but no options [are] being offered.  calculated mistakes… Read More Constellations Ms (folio#073.119.82) ~ poetry by William Jackson

You gotta talk the talk  ’cuz it’s a no-brainer. Don’t go down for the count after drawing a blank.  The jig is up! Gotta be quick on the draw or go back to square one,  Know what I’m sayin’?   Ride ’em, cowboy! But when the plot thickens and it’s down to the wire, We gotta… Read More From a Random Phrase Generator ~ poetry by Hallie Dickerson

1 I paid the entrance fee To Elvis Aaron Presley’s mortal Grave, there in Memphis, Tennessee. What did I learn there? He was thee and me. 2 I tried to walk down To the sylvan river Wye. But the field was muck And mined with cow dung, And clouding the air, flies. 3 Inevitably we… Read More Five Pentagraphs ~ poetry by Kevin Brennan

The finest and the fattest is for their board, But she would rather take refuge in a convent. Moved to compassion by the anxiety, His levity and petulance,        perpetually breaking out. Exhausted with his various exertions, He resolved to trust to the sagacity of his horse. And she would have compassion upon them    into a… Read More Hidden verse in Ivanhoe ~ poetry by Nathaniel P. Mahar

  Pru Marais is a poet and educator who lives in the eastern half of the country, though she has not told us which country.