masquerade ball
under the makeup
my wrinkles
—
Archana Kapoor Nagpal is an internationally published author of books including 14 Pearls of Inspiration, The Road to a Positive Life, The Fragrance of a Beautiful Life, A Pinch of Love, Peace and Humanity, New Love: Anthology of Short Stories and The 12 Facets of a Crystal. Please visit her author page to learn more.
I have a memory of something that never happened.
And that isn’t even the best part.
“Hey mister!” a small, dark voice shouted,
because it was small and dark
and because anyone I would ever love
was clomping around upstairs.
—
Howie Good, a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Dark Specks in a Blue Sky from Another New Calligraphy.
a single cloud
grazes over another
in an azure sky
the nothing and everything
of my moods
—
Shloka Shankar is a freelance writer from India. She loves experimenting with all forms of the written word, and has found her niche in Japanese short-forms and found poetry. Her works have recently appeared in Silver Birch Press, Eunoia Review, Oddball Magazine, Poetry WTF?!, Of/with and so on. She is also the founding editor of the literary & arts journal, Sonic Boom.
The town still smells of horses
long after. The dim sky senses moisture
with piqued nostrils, gathering
across lipped leaves in whorls,
perspiring. Bricks do not sweat out
the flesh that warmed them;
animal musk remains long past
the animal: rainwater canters and
snorts its way from cloud to
earth and back — gone and gone
then gone again, hooves steady
in their distance, like a patch of
road where there is always
an engine churning its flanks,
dim sky lathered and
heaving with steam.
—
Ben Meyerson’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as Epignosis Quarterly and The Inflectionist Review. He has a chapbook coming out in 2016 with The Alfred Gustav Press entitled In A Past Life.
moving sale
we make a bunch
of new friends
—
Sheila Sondik is a printmaker and poet in Bellingham, WA. Her poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies and, in 2013, Egress Studio Press published her chapbook, Fishing a Familiar Pond: Found Poetry from the Yearling. Her website is sheilasondik.com
You might have stayed up
All night, clicking at every link
To your daydream, searching
For a soulmate in the cyberspace
You might have enjoyed an early dose
Of original sin between sleep and wake
Before packing up all your seasonal greetings
With your luggage to catch the first plane
Or sitting up in meditation
With every sensory cell
Widely open to receive
Blue dews from nirvana
But you did not. Rather, you have just
Had another long fit of insomnia and
Now in this antlike moment, you are
Imagining a lucky morning glow
That is darting along the horizon
—
Yuan Changming, 8-time Pushcart nominee and author of 5 chapbooks, grew up in rural China, became an ESL student at 19, and published monographs on translation before moving to Canada. With a PhD in English, Yuan currently edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver, and has poetry appearing in Best Canadian Poetry (2009,12,14), BestNewPoemsOnline, Threepenny Review and 1089 others across 37 countries.
the blues is when you know
you can’t hit half the notes
& the people around you
are gonna look at you
like your skin is purple
but you sing anyways & plenty loud
cause it feels so good
& it ain’t supposed to be pretty
—
Herb Kauderer is a retired Teamster who grew up to be an associate professor of English at Hilbert College. His most recent chapbook of poetry The Book of Answers is currently a nominee for the Elgin Award.
playing my guitar
an old song I remember
but my fingers don’t
—
Brian Robertson has been writing haiku throughout the years, years which have seen him spend time at a Buddhist Monastery or two, write Little Blues Book illustrated by R. Crumb and creating several albums of his original blues music and more.
It feels good to think,
to be thought of and to be
touched (well, sometimes.)
I think of my skin
as some weird mix of snack
food and lighting effects.
The radio station
describes imaginary places.
When one song stops,
the next song
just sort of explodes.
It feels good to listen.
It feels good to sing along.
—
Glen Armstrong edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters and has three new chapbooks: Set List (Bitchin Kitsch), In Stone and The Most Awkward Silence of All (both Cruel Garters Press). His work has appeared in Conduit and Cloudbank.
