"The way you bend a tree
and make it grow
whichever way
you got a mind to."
A quiet tribute to a remarkable love, "Billet-doux", by Scott Stoller.
POETRYSkeletons of Former SelvesEric Mattson
Rains drops darkness
Heavier than the city
Shadows follow chained
To the night
POETRYHe Kills ButterfliesSarah Lilius
He kills butterflies
with bare hands.
Beauty snuffed out
by two swollen bowls
of skin, of callused
and red, always red.
POETRYIf You Fall in Love With a WriterGabrielle Sorge
they say “you can never truly die.”
I kept waiting for the right memory
of him to carve into a page.
beautiful new poem from Gabrielle Sorge, "If You Fall in Love With a Writer".
POETRYWith More Than BeingYuan Changming
The river along the route
Of the heart, close to
The most recent feeling, overflows
At each bloody corner
POETRYFlightApril Jones
Relationships are complicated. Especially the ones closest to home. April Jones with her poem "Flight".
I only think of you in the quietest moments, the ones
that force me to remember the things I’ve worked
my life to forget. I once thought that I’d long for a
mother.
POETRYThere Is A Creature In The Desert With The Sharpest ClawsKolleen Carney
Kolleen Carney with the poem "There Is A Creature In The Desert With The Sharpest Claws".
What matters is your skin
that toughened with time, feet on the hard ground
and running, pointed nails like talons. Arms pushing
and climbing. Skin browned from the sun. Skin
no one can touch without being burned.
POETRYPostcards from the Knife ThrowerAlex Stolis
These other dead are unlike me. I know how to mourn
in hammering silence. She describes what sins are not.
Why does the last word have to be amen?
POETRYBuilding MaterialsRich Ives
Rich Ives on the slow, steady movement of time in his poem "Building Materials".
Each year, a little more of my house
is eaten by grass.
POETRYFour Short PoemsJohn Dorsey
John Dorsey makes his Drunk Monkeys debut with a set of four short poems.
the only thing
that keeps me here
is the thought
that a mile
on uneven gravel
is too far to go
for a final baptism.