Pow-er by Bharath Upendra

The world is falling apart. People are moving away and there’s so much chaos inside. Coffee is tasteless this morning, breakfast, bland. Skin tastes saltier, face is drier than ever. How am I gonna live with myself? It’s too cold outside. The place where I stand, everything revolves around this. Sometimes, my head spins along….

Life and Nature Beseeches by Joni Caggiano

tearfully shedding buttery orange leaves all year silently for each life shed in brutality and fear earth rejoices when drops descend from the sky mixing with pores of earth’s green and dirt dry love kisses thistle and uncurls branches to clap while lovers snuggle close, slowing hearts to nap petrichor releases a gift to enhance…

Rotten Tongue by Bogdan Dragos

the big purple bird with no eyes and chipped beak didn’t fly It walked like a normal person would. Almost like someone was wearing it as a costume but he knew of course that there was no one wearing the costume It was real and it showed itself to him on too many occasions. Every…

Earth Our Home by Jeff Flesch

I sit atop the stairs, reminiscing on times fair, and difficult beyond repair. As the pain continues to arise, and the memories flood my mind, my heart continues to wage a war with love at the center of despair. I pick myself up, dust off the self, and realize what love is all about —…

A Cracked Shell by Bogdan Dragos

“Lack of love,” she once told him, “can turn a man into a cracked shell. Turn his steps into rotten butterfly wings falling. Turn his breath into ether. His heart into a sick slug struggling to escape a haunted bog.” Sure, sure but then again his parents told him long ago when he was a…

You Laid Eggs Under my Eyelids? by Bogdan Dragos

the pains in his lower back were killing him “Fuck,” he said, “that’s what I get for not investing into a decent chair.” He reached into his pack and took out another cigarette. “But I gotta smoke to stay alive. What a shitty life.” He typed for another 36 minutes and then his friend, the…

Collective Heritage by Joni Caggiano

sparkling eyes jump to blue skies laughter cracking like popcorn off pinecones while the sun sighs an echo, a reflection of my face joy creates sunbeams in her smile a bald eagle spots us in this place new roots toss footballs with dad blankets of earth’s carpet supple vibrating with merriment, now sad as end…

I Am Me by Swati Sharma

I remind you of that part of yourself which you forgot or can’t continue to be..You choose to be alike to be accepted in society..You hate me for enjoying my solitude and being me..I choose my people with little caution..But like to treat all without prejudice..And you judge me on the basis of parameters..Which you…

Dark, Dark the Wood Through by Charles Lyman

Dark, dark the wood through which owl shadows soar in and between the canopy leaf. Fleecy cover veils a dour moon, visage of distaste, more likely disregard. We fly in dreams and change not the world. Our night chills do not the tides increase. Yet, waking we are changed. What matters when deer and possum…

You’ve a great burden on your shoulders, young soldier by Bogdan Dragos

His child was an infant who couldn’t possibly consent to having his father use him like a therapy pet But he did anyway He wore his military uniform as he held the kid in his arms and rocked him and spoke to him saying, “I have done it. I’ve killed children just like you in…

The Man Who Was Always Right by Rahul Gaur

There was a man who was always right He closed his eyes to see the world in its entirety He breathed in darkness so reality could never disturb him And it never did. There was an open field in front of him but he sat on his spot unfazed His zen head cut through the…

Said the Ashtray by Bogdan Dragos

Of course predators don’t always murder their prey Many times they will just catch something for fun and then release it and revel in the godlike feeling of having allowed a creature infinitely weaker to live “My cat brought me a mouse,” she said. “Held him from the back of the head, like a newborn…

Love is All There Ever is… by Jeff Flesch

gathering up the reminiscence lost, I travel the world, wide and far, searching and dreaming of the nature within…I stop, watch, and listen to the heart, beating steady, just so, and like you always told me it would go, down further, deeper into despair, reeling about the timeliness of each moment… they stretch out to…

So, Have You Made It? by Bogdan Dragos

the bus seat creaked and roared with protest as he sat down He ignored it and looked out the window It won’t be that long of a journey but it’ll be the most painful one He was going home After all the years spent chasing dreams “So, have you made it?” they will ask “Made…

The War Inside by Stephen Allen

There is a silence about you That has never been explored So many things inside you That are still fighting a war Some days can be unkind Other days you will try to forget Just stay for all of those days Today more than all of the rest Be gentle with your soul It needs…

Dancing in the Dark by Anand R Raghavan

On the sidewalk of a private roadour dinner table preservesa faux european ambienceeven the weatherbows to cooperatewith this subterfuge I feel anchoredin a rapturous melancholyand a beer glasssteadily emptied and refilled The conversation floatslike a kaleidoscopeof sentiments and opinionsaccumulating intoan imagined formof who i am my most precious possessioncreated from thin air like fiat currency…