By: Richard LeDue Never Really Liked Hotels The front desk worker wears an undertaker’s smileand the ones who don’t smilemake me feel like someone askingwhere the bathroom is at a funeral,while the […]

By: Alison Auch (Trigger warning: sexual assault) I’m trying to think of a beautiful word,one that goes in front of train but in backof hot night, fourteen in white shirt, was ita […]

By: Karen Lee Stradford The light shines on your faceas you lie in the colbalt casketyour spirit simmers,eternal. Our pleasant morning conversationsover Chock Full O’ Nuts, bagels and scrambled eggsas Channel 2 […]

By: Gopikrishnan Kottoor In The Heart’s Suite The curtains are stillIn the heart’s suite.A little lightFrom the lamp shade,Is all orange upon the floor. What do I still search forIn the heart’s […]

By: Veronica Ashenhurst Bulwark: To Jane Eyre My walls, brick and plaster, stand pitiless.So, I covet the far horizon, as didRochester’s wife, groaning in her windowlessThird-story room. But my infirm hipsAnd legs […]

By: Dan Fitzgerald A Night of Poetry I can’t write the poetry that you readto your friends at dinner parties.I use too many coarse wordsand phrases for polite company.So I sit in […]

By: Alison Auch It’s a liquid dinner that I can’t escapethe bones cross sideways as I walkthis path of marigolds, dogs, dust. It’s dinnertime at my house, and thechildren are in bed, […]

By: Mike Turner We each live in prisonsOf our own designServing a sentenceFor crimes we have committedAgainst ourselves There are walls, bars, fencesAll to confine usInsuring personal pain is maintainedAffliction is ongoingHappiness […]

By: Sushant Thapa Disguise Trace the mind in disguise,Lies and truths both need utterance.Only what is devised has layers of meanings.It’ll be a camouflage if a psychiatrist uses a stethoscopeBecause it is […]

By: Raj Ratan Mala “It’s just a phase”Sure,Like ignorance could get reality erasedThe way coming outAdded motives to count me outJudging if its my “taste”.Sin?Absolutely,When they crawled under my skinSomeone whisperedLoving is […]