Colorado draped

in sunflowers and sunshine

late summer perfume

*

Windi Padia

Crazy Coppertop

overheard in a café

the shadow of last night's
sleeplessness around his eyes
he fumbles with his mobile
"How much for a massage...
"for an hour?
"And it's for men? Massage for men?"

"Does it include everything?"

*

Kaspalita Thompson
Purple Clouds

Three Lives

the mosquito captured in a spider web fat

on someone’s blood—the spider riding dew drops

to consume the dreams of two

*

Barry Napier

Ghosts in (Parentheses)

In And Out Of the Pocket in My Head

6. I have lost my memory and have fouled much more time to try remembering

*

G. David Schwartz

my father

i said

classical

poetry

is irrelevant

and he said

you

are irrelevant

and drank

some more

*

Shannon Peil

amphibi.us

smoke curls

around the empty vodka glass

I paint my face before my lover wakes up

*

Delores

novo
the open day
the sketched direction
______to be lost
______to be found
___________________anew

*

dorothee lang

dorothee lang

on a wardrobe shelf

cigar box of cedar chips

and dry broken insects

*

T. D. Ingraham

curbside puddles:

libation for the cyclist

*

Laurie Kolp

Conversations With Laurie

Breasts

All his life he loved breasts
and now that he has them
his wife wants him to diet.

*

James Valvis

Let it Be

The man on the radio told Juniper to “Let it be.” He liked the saying and molded his life around it. When his sister died, he realized it was a lousy saying.

*

Elliot Andreopoulos

PM Storm

rising slopes of mountains

purple in the dusk,

shy from the rolling thunderheads

that graze their summits like fists

*

Barry Napier

Ghosts in (Parentheses)

In And Out Of the Pocket in My Head

2. I should have melted into the trees and be burned up or turned into furniture

*

G. David Schwartz

clear skies

she pauses
rolls a pant leg

up over a faded tattoo

steps

cautiously

into the clear waters

twenty two

and finally going to disney land

*

Shannon Peil

amphibi.us

Flies lie on their backs
Deep in hypnotic sleep
Dreaming of minute things.

*

Denis Robillard

Waterton Lake --

a doe and two fauns

crop the boulevard

*

Richard Stevenson

molting moon

______feather on the path

already five red leaves

*

Patricia Ranzoni

Reconstruction

I spend late nights drawing butterflies on the backs of shattered dreams.

*

Christina Rodriguez
The Write Queen

Lines Upon Kicking Prozac in Latesummer ‘10

Thoughts, associations, information, self-loathing, hilarity, emotion floods my head in great booms and crashes. I lie down, my heart beats, sentences form and crackle behind my eyes. I put The Wire on DVD, listen to Morcheeba to calm down, try to remember the positives: if you bang your head on some sharp corner then you could cry a little but not really be hurt, if you dial a number there will be a voice on the other side, if you stumble on the cycle paths then somebody will take your hand.

*

Max Dunbar

Max Dunbar

From Michelle's Magnets

Read the water.

Enjoy,

good green music in tree.

Dive.

*

Nicole Taylor

Perseid meteor conjunction

and in an irony of sky

it’s all rain and clouds

instead of wishing on shooting stars

I recover drained garden flowers

*

dorothee lang

dorothee lang

Hawthorn and rowan berries. Rose hips. Rosebay willow herb turning to seed. Summer slipping away.

*

Elise Tate

like a full moon’s tide
storm water destroys
the patterns in the sand
in the Zen garden

*

Kaspalita Thompson

Hillside

dusted with snow -

old man

needs a shave.

*

Tom Montag

The Middlewesterner

deep night--

after the neighbor stops yelling

at her children

the mockingbird

begins to warble

*

d. f. tweney

tinywords

under the tent

snatches of hymns

hide from the rain

*

T. D. Ingraham

Daddy rows his pirogue

down the street

after the tropical depression.

*

Laurie Kolp

Conversations With Laurie

Catch & Release

Can I reel him in like a

fish and if I catch him

will I keep him or throw

him back in?

*

Karyn Eisler

Living ?s

headlights illumine
moth gets caught
frog escapes

*

Tonya Root

Buy Me A Soda

“Buy me a soda,” barked Methuselah.

“Shush,” replied Ralph.
“Buy me a soda,” Methuselah continued.

Ralph gave Methuselah a chocolate bar and he ate it.

Poor Methuselah went to a fire hydrant and urinated. Dizziness overcame him.

*

Elliot Andreopoulos