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Aberrant Thought While in a Check-out Line by Ed Ahern
It’s okay to cry or smile in private,but if among others, even strangers,displaying our mood is at bestbad manners, and at worstdemented behavior to be evaded. But would it not be simpler to copeif we blatantly screamed or sulkedor laughed out loud for no apparent cause?For we could sense the…
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Here We Are by Ed Ahern
What can be said or doneAbout what hasn’t happened?Yet living in the momentturns away the inner eyefrom anticipated pleasuresand awaited fears.If we portray ourselvesas what we wish to be,perhaps we need to worryjust a little more aboutwhere the hell we are. ____________________________________________________________ Ed Ahern is a former naval officer who specialized in…
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She can’t help herself by Mary Ford Neal
She’s smiling the woman whose husband will shortly have her murdered whose thimble, whose sheets whose husband’s flesh will soon be warmed by a more obliging body with a lot more give and quite a bit less to say. She’s smiling and at my leisure I can appraise every detail of her…
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Mr. Walton by Urmila Rampersaud
I last saw him that Sunday. Sitting on an old pine log like a nuthatchstaring at the white morning glory in his garden. With quivering hands, he waved as the passersby called out, “Mr.Walton”.Words bounced off his lips but never reached an ear.He smiled as two squirrels ran pass him…
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Follow the Sound of the Waves of the Sea by S. T. Brant
i. The sound of the Waves of EnvyLocks the gate to Life.Strand us on Styx’s shoresAll eternity to look upon the living mingle:The open air of joys forsworn forThe odes of misery we sing, we sing, we sing. ii. The sound of the Waves of MayaFull of Belief, and Hope, and Happy-The…
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Janus by Abigail Pearson
to be bright and carry oni wanted in but also wanted outyou all looked like dancing mummies from here andthe bedroom is always safe for me friendship or i hate herfucking but also i’m hungrymind over make, i can’t decide for myself and slowly i’m driving you to insanity singer or killerholding hands or break up foreverthe…
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I don’t want your future, mother by b.i.w
dear future me i felt bad that morning looking at your imperfect posture when you sat sad deep-like-a-well black eyes I truly felt bad although A lot may say I didn’t because I left at the end but they all (or maybe none) have to know that that was me I…
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A Glimmer by Jason de Koff
The fog’s incandescent glow at full moon,creates shapeshifters from shadows,like a blind man, the smells and sounds,become more effusive than ever. The drip, drop cadence of the bobbing vessels,portray the sound of gunshots ricocheting around the harbor,or perhaps, it is the step of otherworldly beings,seeking their betrothed from the land…
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Perfect Timing by Jason de Koff
What is sleep,but the hard reset,of the mind.The brain changes configuration,releasing toxins,dispensing cookies. Repairing the damage,from cortisol-induced stresses,reducing sharp edges among the folds,Bringing to question,whether names can’t hurt you,as physical tolls prove otherwise. Flushing the system,with the means to motivate,and shape the daily masterpiece.Defined by what is left,the salvaged energy…
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Any Measure by J.L. Lapinel
You are so weird was the most loving thing my mother said and you speak Spanish that sounds like Armenian but her arms were smooth and smelled like bread and she would let me write on her feetin pen and rasp off the lettersin dusty callus powder my words shredded and dismissed below her little undefined feet with unspoiled perfectly aligned toes two…