Ayaz Daryl Nielsen- Two Poems

seeking the feral

and unpredictable

four-leafed

bodhisattvas

Time-spawned caravans of martyrs,

those who died for others, arriving                                        

through forgotten graveyard portals 

Clear, pungent story-tellers of the sacred 

within our peeled and cored images.

 

 

Stefanie Bennett- A Poem

Stefanie Bennett has published several books of poetry & has poems appear in

Shot Glass Journal, The Provo Canyon Review, Snow Monkey, Dead Snakes,

Ink, Sweat & Tears, Pyrokinection, Galway Review, The Camel Saloon & others.

Of mixed ancestry [Italian/Irish/Paugussett-Shawnee] she was born in Queens-

land, Australia. Stefanie’s latest poetry book “The Vanishing” was published by

Walleah Press [2015] & is available from Walleah, Amazon & Fishpond...

 

 

 

AFTER THE FALL (RE-ISSUE) 2015    

 

And I will love you because

The world never did.

And I will cloak you in syllables

To keep inquiring eyes at bay.

And I will cover our footprints

So daringly

That no-one will ask

                     Ever again

For a sequel to love and loveliness.

 

And you will love me because

The world never did.

Because the gentleness of fortitude

Is a hard act to follow.

And we will scrape up

Our worldly ruins

To begin building this hectare

                           Of the heart

Cupped between the planet’s breast.

 

Know that the quiet

Doctrines

Will be

As fragile

As your face.

 

And the melody – clear

As a single

Birdcall

Across the idioms

Of free space.

 

In a land where

No wall stands,

We will meet and set

Our lives to the order

Of simple things:

 

We will love because

The world never did...

And give back what was

Never taken

When the time comes.

 

 

[following the painting by Charles

Billich. Poem 1st published in

Overland Quarterly Magazine]

 

 

Linda M. Crate- A Poem

bondage 

 

maybe you're my cure

maybe you're just my ailment

crawl into my veins

i want to taste your chaos

free me of the bondage of myself

let me unravel

hide my secrets in your bones

i don't know if i need you,

but i want you

let us kiss as the ocean kisses the shore;

we can be just as mercurial

for i am moody as the moon and maybe one 

day we'll decide to join as one

forevermore

kiss beneath an audience of stars and sun

dance with the wolves and fly with

the birds. 

Dustin Pickering- A Poem

Whirling Dervishes

We dance like children
in poverty, happy and ne’er longing for more.

The force is continued in the small
of your hand:
life is a distant star,
a dream.

Nonchalantly, I wait for time
to pass,
but it is not soon enough.
Blind fools dance.

I cannot change
these lives of fantasy.
The cold river warms
until it changes hue.

Face the secret room
with no walls,
and yellowing wallpaper.
No actual existence.
No transcendence.


 

Matthew D. Laing- A Poem

Matthew D. Laing is fairly new to writing fiction and poetry for publication, but has been dabbling in the craft since his time at university. He has been published so far at Bewildering Stories, The Literary Yard, and Three Drops from a Cauldron (including one print volume). Matthew writes from Canada, the land of igloos and polar bears. 

Lost at Sea

We aimlessly drift

in the wide, never-ending sea;

into a vast nothingness

of sapphire and royal blue

of hesitant breezes

of salt water and salty air.

The wooden hull is decomposing,

decaying; almost malleable pieces

of timber and steel,

of rotted cloth and vermin

of empty stores.

We dream of the shoreline;

great trees and rich soil,

of a fresh start

of water free from poison

of lands barren and wild

of gold. 

Richard Schnap- A Poem

LEGACY

I smell the smoke
From the undead factories
A poisonous pungency
Woven in the wind

And I hear the cries
Of the ghosts that slaved there
For the vampires of industry
That drank their souls dry

And I feel the groans
From the earth beneath them
Where they writhe in their coffins
Unable to sleep

And I see the night
In the eyes of their children
A sky black as ashes
That’s absent of stars

Noel Negele- A Poem

After-Humans.

This is what some scientists

are sure we will become

after a couple of years of progress.

The mind will be free of flesh

inside the mechanical skull

of a robotic body.

After the earth has become

an infertile surface,

a man made giant tumor

floating in space

we will be human minded robots

spearing the space for knowledge,

infinite and immortal

boundless by sexual tensions,

the need of water

or love.

At the top of our game

when it comes to arranging

our biochemicals

we will not feel hatred

nor the need to harm someone.

Our serotonin levels

will always be balanced.

We will not feel lonely

even after being centuries alone

drifting in space

with no limit of fear;

learning and naming 

galaxies and constellations;

discovering new life forms

and methods of math.

The scientists say we will

finally reach a conclusion

that is total.

Fortunately

none of us will be here

to witness

all that madness 

taking place.