Poetry
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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
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A Quiet Companion
Carol Anne Johnson Anxiety knocks without warning,slipping into the room like a draft,cold fingers tracing the edges of thought,whispering what if, what if, what if. It builds a storm from silence,turns footsteps into echoes,breath into burden,and the heart into a hurried drum. But still—I learn to breathe around it,to plant my feet on steady ground,to… Continue reading
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The Order of Things
Meridith Allison I’ve retreated from the world,from the fractious unfolding of things,and set my sights instead on all that is,or ever was, or ever will be– these motes of dust suspended in the morning light,and the crumbs behind the toaster,dog hair on the floor,chaos at home as it is in the heavens. The nerve to… Continue reading
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I Say the Words and Dance
Merril D. Smith “Do not obey in advance.”—Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century When they ban the booksand suppress the press– I’ll whisper the wordslest you forget the world’s not flat,there are still facts, there is still this,despite the that. For now, I titter at the naked king,percolate slogans,salt the air… Continue reading
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When the World Tilts
Audrey Howitt like now,when toy soldiers cannot graze the sunor crease skin,I come home, to sand and mist,to the way my eyes hold a horizonknowing its impermanence against movementits sturdinessas planted feet hold the setting sun below water. I want to know how we came to this,though that won’t take the pain awayor cause the… Continue reading
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On a Pale Horse
Rachel Armes-McLaughlin They were going door to dooron a pale horsein Minneapolis. The largest raid ever,boasts the bloated king. But you know thisbetter than any. Just the first day –one weekinto this fresh new hell – and you were shotfor taking a video. What did she saywhen they shot you, dove? Stuffed animal, air bag,her… Continue reading
The Chaos Section Poetry Project 