Poetry
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Bruised Orange
Patrick Dunn Imagine waking every day in opulenceSeeing only ungilded spaces in need of gaudy excessA photonegative emptinessToo cracked to developNot even as interesting as the old canister of filmMother left behind in the refrigeratorBack when child-mind wanted for cheap candyAnd connection What else went undeveloped? Imagine staring,Fixing something of thinning hairIn an ugly priceless Continue reading
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Irish Hermitage Dream
Eileen ‘ike’ West An invisible menace threatens.I might blame the economy,I could say it’s people’s indifference,But it’s not.It is fear of the unknown, for sure.An unlikely unknown;As if lately, we’re overshadowed by ghosts,Phantoms from some dank corner of the collective mind. Where once the group psyche held a semblance ofPeace and grace,Darkness chokes out the Continue reading
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Solitary
Rick Doyle I am a manI am a man reading a story in a newspaperabout another man who languishesin solitary confinement whose age is thatof my own son. Rick Doyle, poet and playwright, practices law in Downeast Maine. His poetry has been published in numerous journals, including Kaleidotrope and The Cafe Review, and won a Continue reading
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The Mess of Thrown Off Clothes
Strider Marcus Jones i listento your love beads glistenin the flotsamof my room- we make themfrom samurai sword foldsat forge and loomin the mess of thrown off clothes. so many smoke me kissesat portal doors,and mithril wisheson primitive floors- take us back againthrough heath and fento imitatelost landscape- cycleand circlesky and stoneoutside and home- in love in lesswith your heavenliness,and Continue reading
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How to Dodge Bombs
Patricia J McLean I think it could be a night like that night in Augustjust before Utopia got a new wall to replace the brokenfalling down, rotten wood wall Or before the night like that night, or another sort of night altogetherwhen the broccoli dies of neglect, tomatoes are so heavy vines breakthe garden is Continue reading
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script eighty-five
Liz Mariani are you are the screenwriterresting in a field of garlic? are you are the bankersinking into another suburban fold? are you are the loverat the door on the floor at the door? are you the border guard?this is a field of garlic spin the clearcut field of snowchew the wind this is the Continue reading
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The American Dream 2.0
Shannon Frost Greenstein Part One In America, we quantize our bodiesand the complexities of our brains –assigning each part a separate dollar value –because health insurance companies don’t deal in health;because health insurance companies deal in profit. In America, we employ thousandsin the manufacture of bulletproof backpacks;entire factories pumping out Kevlarlike this band-aid is the Continue reading
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Thoughts from the other side of the Mid Atlantic Rift
Sue McBean Only an ocean away.On the “scatter my ashes’ island.Across the Atlantic. Rathlin.Eider ducks coo, tide ebbs and flows,and oyster catchers scream alarm. The soft eiders,huddle close for safety in numbers.They seem to fly under water.Menacing gulls circle overhead.There are no chicks yetfor airborne rats to play tyrant over. They’llcross the Sound to scavenge Continue reading
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clean
Liz Mariani better get clean before the taxmancomes to tax you for living i got raped and all i got was this lousy t-shirt can’t teach in america when everywhere isa classroom ripe for a mass shootingcan’t walk/wake/weep in americawhen everywhere is a hospital rotten aerosol mustard i got raped and all i got was Continue reading
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Born Naked, the Choice After is Ours
Merril D. Smith 1. The rot from within festers,the room reeks, the lies bloom like corpse flowers,the stench overwhelming–it’s the new perfume. Three men in that oval chamber,only one is a leader, and I am ashamed. 2. But— in the darkness, we openour eyes, whisperpoetry, till we becomeferocious– motherswill defend their young,their young will growl Continue reading
The Chaos Section Poetry Project 