A Poem by Joan McNerney

I planted my garden

on the wrong side
of moon forgetting
tides of ocean
lunar wax wane

 

only madness
was cultivated
there underground
tubular roots
corpulent veins

 

flowers called
despair gave off
a single fruit...

 

I ate it
my laughter
becoming harsh
my eyes grew
oblique.

 

 

Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary magazines such as Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Blueline, 63 channels, Spectrum, and three Bright Spring Press Anthologies. She has been nominated twice for Best of the Net in 2011. Four of her books have been published by fine small literary presses.

A Poem by Sherry Steiner

ETIENNE (#25)

Stroboscopic matter. Rear projections. Everyone claps. Take her hand Etienne. Demonstrating a second nature to the use of a wide angle lens for black and white scenes - just step this way please. A zoom isn't always necessary. A book on the floor. A curtain torn. Negatives unraveling. There once was a time when all visual data was readable - digestible - discernable. Pointing his index finger upward Pierre refused to edit. A blemish on the bridge, a Bach fugue. The ambassador of foreign affairs came front and center and called out roll 'em! Right on cue 50,000 hard boiled eggs were released. Cause and effect/effect and cause. Etienne groaned. That wasn't in the script. Having an enterprising mind without sophistication he blessed the chickens that made the eggs and cursed the ambassador who caused the mess. A kaleidoscope of squealing ladies and their lean cowboys broke into a chase.

Sherry Steiner lives in Housatonic MA. For more info: www.sherrysteiner.com

A Poem by April Salzano

Timeline

5/04                Moved from GA to PA

9/04                Bought 1^st house

12/04              Husband used for the first time

Got pregnant on the bedroom floor

8/30/05          Gave birth to 2^nd son: Thomas

9/06                Got pregnant (immaculate conception?)

12/06              Miscarried (guess not)

4/07                Husband went to England

6/07                Husband went back to England

7/07                Found out about affair husband had in England

7/07                Threw husband out

7/07                Husband went to rehab

8/07                Took husband back

11/07               Found out husband was using, cheating again

11/07              Threw husband out again

12/07              Husband went to rehab again

1/08                Buried my dog

5/08                Fucked a few random people who did not seem random at the time

6/08                Husband went to rehab again

8/08                Buried my father

8/08                Met potential future second husband: Eric

9/08                Abruptly stopped screwing whatshisname

1/09                Filed bankruptcy

2/09                Husband went to rehab again

1/10                Divorced husband

6/10                Moved in with Eric

6/11                Married Eric

Lived

happily ever after?

April Salzano teaches college writing in Pennsylvania. Her work has appeared in Poetry Salzburg, Pyrokinection, Convergence, Ascent Aspirations, The Rainbow Rose, The Camel Saloon, The Applicant, The Mindful Word, Napalm and Novocain and is forthcoming in Jellyfish Whispers, The South Townsville Micro Poetry Journal, and Inclement. She is working on her first collection of poetry and an autobiographical novel examining the beauty and pain involved in raising a child with Autism.

A Poem by David S. Pointer

     Synthetic Youth

Submersible buffalo rodeo
//**two hunters carrying
bear paws roped to a pole
for designer babies brunch
                              review
menu

                                for
infant care catalog@III
drinking formula vitamin
as enhanced animal crack-
cracks//**run/briar/run//



David S. Pointer has a new poem at "The Camel Saloon" in The Bamboo Forest Section. His new chapbook "Sinister Splashplay" is listed in "The Camel Saloon" bookstore.

A Poem by Adam Fieled

#507

I am is,

in saying,

like being

in woods,

like leaves,

like trees,

like a place

to rest after

you know

what I mean.

Adam Fieled is a poet based in Philadelphia. His sixth print book, "Cheltenham," is due out from Blazevox this summer.

A Poem by Yevgeniy Levitskiy

Safety Precautions 

  

Look down below!

The

paint

            bucket

has

            fell

down

            the

stairs

            and

is

            splashing

metallic

            green

paint

            on

overzealous

            customers

with

            post-consumer

recycled

            shopping

bags

            and

plastic

            cups

of

            expensive

coffee

            that

are

            made

with

            inexpensive

beans.

Yevgeniy Levitskiy has received a B.A. in English-Education from Brooklyn College, and is currently pursuing a M.A. His writing has been published in The Junction, Jellyfish Whispers, and Pyrokinection. His forthcoming publications include The Books They Gave Me (Free Press/Simon & Schuster), Downer Magazine, Eunoia Review, BareBack Magazine, The Smoking Poet, Poydras Review, Bursting Plethora, Misfits’ Miscellany, and ken*again. He is currently at work on his second novel.

A Poem by Neil Ellman

Map

 

(after the painting by Jasper Johns)

Disunited states

       helter skelter

                     borderlines—

Show me your land

      of enchantment

      northstar-bluegrass-hawkeye-

      hoosiers in their place

      the garden of your empire dreams

Give me your tired       your poor

     your blue-eyed scientists

     the wretched refuse of the moon

Listen to my spangled song

     oh, see can you say

                mississippi with a drawl

                texas with a twang

Oh, sweet disneyland

     I see your destiny

     In reds yellows      blues

     unfolding on a map.

Neil Ellman lives and writes in New Jersey. With more than 500 published poems to his credit, his work appears throughout the world, from Australia to Zimbabwe. The latest of his eight chapbooks, Convergence and Conversion, is just out from The Knives Forks and Spoons Press in the United Kingdom.