Empty Nest by Jeff Flesch

the pain comes to me in the afternoon as I sit in front of the tree meant for you and me I cannot hide from the tears inside they well up and finally, come forth in my heart and on my cheeks, they do intone a lingering in the midst of our tryst, as I…

Aftershock by Joni Caggiano

her face resembles the pathways of a troubled life hair so white it was spun by the moon’s shadow sitting at a table molded from an ancient cypress tears float from olive eyes opening her fissuring lips black roses and screams of old fuse with smells splitting wind gray sky seeps into falling ash a…

Outside the Window by Dr. Sunil Kaushal

Every morning I wake up; not rudely awakened out of some wonderful dream, but brooding slumber that cheats me of sunlit days, plummeting into a gloomy dungeon. I stroke the phantom contours of your body; your musk wafting out of crumpled sheets, hits my senses. Your fingers caressing my languorous limbs ignited our passions night…

Helios of Pain by Jeff Flesch

birds fly through the sky as in my heart our love always resides flittering and mistaking a beat or two for a remedy made of oranges that are blue in an afternoon of love-making combined with two souls partaking in each other, hand in hand and as I gasp, before the rendering is complete a…

Cloudless Drifter by Jeff Flesch

oranges and limes fill the sky a scent reminiscent of another time when love was like a drop of candy in the winter and the fields were dusty a cloudless drifter was I looking for another relation the wonder filling my mind while birds chirped on the trees broken limbs and I continued to swim…

The Sun Never Parts by Devika Mathur

The days are blurred, almost like the orange juice from last night’s party a pale sick shadow of grapevine hanging across my windowpane-  perching beneath my skirt to cast its magic onto my heavy eyelids. People say- “it is sunny outside.” But, how should I believe? With a loose limb, the clemency of body I…

The Girl by Britta Benson

She can see fresh leaf green through the concrete, spot a fairy from ten thousand miles away and always in her own reflection. She’s three. Fairy dust – what a joke. That’s not how she operates. Look for the cracks, the cuts and scars. When one world bursts open, another one waits underneath, ready to…

A Love, Emboldened by Jeff Flesch

books with broken spines, reminds me of a time, when pain was deeper, a love inclined towards the heavens, farther than can be seen, it’s as if, we’ve always believed in something grander, smiling in the face of adversity, we did not find our posterity, more a glimmer of uniformity, a gentle touch, skin bared…

Dance Away the Day by Jeff Flesch

as a tear escapes my eye, I resist even more, not wanting to face the deluge needing to pour forth gritting my teeth, searing pain in my chest, with a stomach that won’t last through the infinitudes of plentiful feelings bubbling up, and brewing straight to the top so fast no stopping them now, as…