By: Frank C Modica The Shovel Manafter Carl Sandburg Every summer Grandpa worked magicin his backyard garden with a shovel in hand.He loved spading dirt over newly seeded beds, setting poles for string beans, sharing the bounty with his family.In…
By: Katherine Wei I intertwine my fingers with the laces of today,as the irregularity of my heartbeatthumps to a seagull’s flight, flapping.If the forgone moments can rip me into clear-cut halves,torn between what ifs and no, that happened already,maybe then…
By: Carson Pytell Physis The waking hour, upon a high promontorystretching from woods over a mirrored sky. A breeze picks up, tousles matted hair,traces a stiff chill from the neck down. Fifty yards out is a rocky islet, one tree.In…
By: Charlotte Edwards Dear all the men in my lifeCorrectionDear all the toxic men in my life I will not write a poem about youSome men aren’t worth the wordsI won’t romanticize our fightsAnd the way my lungs burnedWhen I…
By: Sinchan Chatterjee Chimney-sweeper I tie a rope around my stomachAnd ask to be lowered again.I hang in the airAnd wipe the four sides of the walls with care:One layer at a time.I sing myself a songAs I go lower…
By: donnarkevic Love Is Like a Black, Black Eye I let the coon dogs get outWhen his buddies arriveNo CrownJesus,I do not have a beard to pluckOwe three payments on his truckWhen I go to work, no one asksWhat the…
By: Stephen Kingsnorth A line of light at curtain side, above the sill, beside the wallaccompanies the morning call of hoover drone, push then retreat;and then Dad’s brushing, rhythmic, swish to polish shoes,I see him standing, newsprint spread on dining…
By: Stephen Kingsnorth David Frank Kingsnorth, 19 January 1946 – 23 June 1947The Happiest day of the year is June 23 according to a recent studycompleted by the Cardiff University in Wales It is his birthday, David Frank,seventy three, still…
By: Linda M Crate you didn’t deserve me all the oceansi cried for you,should’ve kept to myself;you didn’t deservethem— you only wanted my nakedbody and not my naked soul soyou didn’t deserve the firstof my flowers, either; but that was…
By: Charlie Brice Drinks with John Last night I had a drink in a pub with John Lennon.His hair was short and he wore those rimless glasseshe used to read the world. We had a nice time although he made…