Poetry
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Where We Let Attention Linger
Nick Allison If I’d known what was comingI might have stayed drunk—wrapped in the amber hushwhere edges blurand headlines dissolve like salt. Three years on,thoughts scatter like pigeonswhen I move too fast toward them.If I leave them alonethey circle,then vanish into sky. Maybe free will is only a rumor.Still, I can choosewhich rumor to follow,which Continue reading
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A Song of Flowers
Isabelle Luebke Flower shimmeringwith raindropsand sun— beauty has cometo this world. Nine-year-old Isabelle Luebke lives in Little Rock, Arkansas and spends time equally with her dad, Brandon Luebke, and her mom, Rachel Armes-McLaughlin, who is co-editor on this book. Isabelle likes to draw, play with her many cats and dogs (and one fish), help her Continue reading
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Evenings Like This
Rachel Armes-McLaughlin I relish in the eveningslike this, when after a busyand not always easyday, we come homeand the neighborhoodkittens have come outto play – we go chirp at them,then head toward ourfront door, but before we can even reach itwe smell the stew –like a warm auraaround our home –that we put onhours before. Continue reading
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It’s All about Death, Really
Barbara Harris Leonhard The gap between compassion and surrender is love’s darkest, deepest region.—Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence I am ready to shed the old clothes,the tatters that hang off my heart that I thoughtheld some comfort but that no longer fit me.I lay them out for display. Touch each one,each fear & attachment Continue reading
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In A Silence
Paul Cannon I love the quiet placewhere the trees meetthe water and wherethe stars are welcomedas friends who speakin a silence feltmarrow deepas they searchmy dark corners,lessening the dullconcerns of days lostof light and take meonce again colouringoutside the lines ofthe narrow,and out, out, beyondto the potent throbof life that lives in theveins of my Continue reading
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Accepted
Luke Meyers I smileWhen they smile I laughWhen they laugh My anger ragesSilently inside But I smileWhen they smile I laughWhen they laugh Maybe thenI’ll be accepted At leastOn the outside. Luke Meyers is a Welsh writer and poet who started writing during lockdown. He has been published in anthologies by Icebreakers Lit, From One Continue reading
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Remembering This, You’ll Laugh
Frank Johnson It hurts to see you looking so depressed.So depressed you looking to see it hurts.The worst thing is I don’t know what’s the best.What’s the best I don’t know thing is the worstway to help put your troubled mind at rest.At rest your troubled mind to help put way.As you can see, I’m Continue reading
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Flood
Erica Johnson It wasn’t until I noticed the dog walkers returningfrom the singular trail ahead of methat I discovered there might be trouble at the turn –a flooded path blocking any progress forward. Cautious, I paused my walktaking a seat upon a rock half-warmedby the weakened winter sun whichhad itself been washed out for several Continue reading
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Capacities
Kerfe Roig Just make it simple, I tell myself.A few black lines, a white-shadowed structure. A ladder of black lines leading into white shadows.If there’s a way down, there’s a way up. Up and down are not the only dimensions.Infinity is full of expansive emptiness. Emptiness can expand, saturate every illusion.I want to become a Continue reading
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The Pool Leaks
Joshua Walker I have a pool. It has a hole and bleeds,but I keep pouring in water,watching it vanish like everything elsethey try to steal from me. A tree leans over, a vine crawls its fingers in,but I skim the surface anyway,ritual after ritual, daring it to win. I have a wood fence; it splintered, Continue reading
The Chaos Section Poetry Project 