stormwater drain
men fishing
bodies
out
—
Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy is a psychiatrist from Bengaluru India, living in England. A trained vocalist and a composer in Indian Classical Music, he writes in Kannada, Sankethi, Tamil and English languages. His haikai writings have been published in reputed journals and anthologies and won prizes, worldwide. He is currently the Editor of the Blithe Spirit, journal of The British Haiku Society.
What if the monster in your dream is just you?
same coin
the shadow
and the self
—
Tiffany Shaw-Diaz is an award-winning poet who has been featured in Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Acorn, Presence, and many other publications. She is the founder and director of The Co-op Poetry Lab. To read more of her work visit after pink.
on the edge of town
coyotes
telling all our secrets
—
Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco lives in California’s Central Valley and co-edits One Sentence Poems. Her chapbook, Various Lies, is available from Finishing Line Press.
Luminous
reflection of the moon’s
cool elegance
another light floating
across night’s dark acre
out of place
clinging to my wall
unmoving or unable to move
one curving underwing
half torn off
casualty of a night bird’s hunger
broken, still beautiful, shining
here in daylight
where you don’t belong
—
Mary McCarthy has always been a writer, as well as a visual artist and a Registered Nurse. She has had many publications in online and print journals, including The Ekhprastic Review, Three Elements, Earth’s Daughters and Third Wednesday, and has an electronic chapbook, Things I Was Told Not to Think About available as a free download from Praxis Magazine.
a millipede body,
a paper dragon, bound
home from our festivals.
—
Dennis Andrew S. Aguinaldo teaches at the University of the Philippines Los Baños and blogs at tekstong bopis. His works have appeared in Plural, Epizootics!, Transit, Bukambibig, {m}, and The Cabinet.
night party
black insects crowd
a white bulb
—
Blessed Ayeyame is a Nigerian who is fascinated by the written word, and he writes to share in this fascinating experience.
mosquitoes…
pumpjacks plunge into
parched land
—
Ben Groner III (Nashville, TN), recipient of Texas A&M University’s 2014 Gordone Award for undergraduate poetry, has work published in Appalachian Heritage, New Mexico Review, Gnarled Oak, Third Wednesday, The Bookends Review, and elsewhere. You can see more of his work at bengroner.com/creative-writing/
old friends–
I add more sugar
to the tea cups
—
David He has been working as an advanced English teacher for 35 years in a high school. So far he has had twenty short English stories published in anthologies. In recent years he has had haiku published in magazines like Acorn, The Heron’s Nest, Presence, Rocket bottles, Frogpond, A One Hundred Gouges, Shamrock, First Literary Review-East, Modern Haiku, Frozen Butterfly and some international magazines. He has also had tanka published in Tanka of America, Skylark, Ribbones and Cattails. He lives in Gansu Province, China.
She’s fond of kicking the door
wide open entirely too late at night
wearing wild hair and her take-no-prisoners red boots–
Let’s get this party started!
What can I do?
She won’t take no for an answer.
Insists I call her Roxanne.
In the morning I will have to explain again
to my husband why I came so late to bed.
—
Robin Turner is the author of bindweed & crow poison: small poems of stray girls, fierce women (Porkbelly Press, 2016). A Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has most recently appeared in Psaltery & Lyre, 3Elements Literary Review, and in the magical White Rock Zine Machine. Robin works, plays, and daydreams in Dallas, Texas.
I watch my body every night,
how it practices leaving,
the bed becomes a boat,
the sheet a sail
and the frame a prow.
I watch my body every night
rehearse its last goodbye,
how the stars lose their sway,
rust weakens the locks on doors
and windows become porous.
I watch how the cuckoo
escapes the clock every hour.
—
Chumki Sharma is a poet from Calcutta, India. She is a 2017 semi finalist of the Vine Leaves Vignette Collection Award and is the author of Shape of Emptiness published by the Vine Leaves Press, Melbourne.
