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Recently published poetry & prose

kristina maupin [bio][Twitter]

alternative school

teens deboard the bus like quail

all over the street

Monday, February 8th, 20100.046 million seconds ago
Gordon Darroch [bio][Twitter]

After his team's defeat he prowled home all geared up to murder something. She read the signs and prepared a sacrificial beer.

Sunday, February 7th, 20100.132 million seconds ago
Boudreau Freret [bio][web][Twitter]

"If your critique doesn't hurt, it can't help me learn and grow," I said. "Then we should have a safety word," she replied.

Saturday, February 6th, 20100.214 million seconds ago
Kevin Cutrer [bio][web][Twitter]

In the beginning was the Word,

and through a fine fissure of an "L"

our world gushed forth

in all its goddamn splendor.

Friday, February 5th, 20100.307 million seconds ago
BenM [bio][web][Twitter]

How I know to trust her:


Here, she says, try this.

I put out my hand

and she offers me sunlight.

Thursday, February 4th, 20100.387 million seconds ago
Jessica Otto [bio][Twitter]

She could see everything: sunshine behind the windowpane, birches in a cluster, even the mental institution's pond frogs.

Wednesday, February 3rd, 20100.488 million seconds ago
elle wrathall [bio][Twitter]

"i still don't get it. what's a metaphor?" the student mumbled. she paused, but then said it, "when you call me puta."

Saturday, January 23rd, 20101.428 million seconds ago
prav.us twiction [bio][web][Twitter]

Once upon a time, a boy immolated a frog. His parents found him face down in the pond the next day, not a frog in sight.

Friday, January 22nd, 20101.517 million seconds ago
R. Gatwood [bio][Twitter]

He tosses out her bottles of omega-3, antioxidants, and zinc, wondering why she didn't buckle up.

Wednesday, January 20th, 20101.697 million seconds ago
S. Kay [bio][Twitter]

Firing coloured explosives from the dock, looking into the sky. You kiss me. I hit you back. Our combustible ritual, every year.

Sunday, January 17th, 20101.946 million seconds ago
Oscar Windsor-Smith [bio][web][Twitter]

Roasting in sun-view, suit holed, air all but gone, Zak craves grass between his toes. Facing home, he's dying to feel rain.

Friday, January 15th, 20102.103 million seconds ago
elle wrathall [bio][Twitter]

the gas-pedal gauged her frustration at the gloom. she drove recklessly on days like these, as though she were chasing Spring

Tuesday, January 12th, 20102.363 million seconds ago
Matthew Purdy [bio][Twitter]

Obama backwards is amabo, in Latin, "I will love." So forwards must be: "They have hated." Some are still stuck in the imperfect.

Sunday, January 10th, 20102.542 million seconds ago
S. Kay [bio][Twitter]

The merciless bride smiles at the reception line. Festivities are planned. Then he'll be all hers for the night. For life.

Monday, January 4th, 20103.077 million seconds ago
S. Kay [bio][Twitter]

"People who don't trust others are untrustworthy," says a boy carving ice. I drink fake cocoa and ask, "How would we know?"

Wednesday, December 30th, 20093.488 million seconds ago
elle wrathall [bio][Twitter]

she left her makeup smudged when she headed out to meet him for lunch. it wouldn't have felt honest otherwise

Tuesday, December 29th, 20093.571 million seconds ago
Jessica Otto [bio][Twitter]

We remember her with plastic roses thrown into the refuse of the Pacific. Her husband drinks in New York with his mistress.

Monday, December 14th, 20094.86 million seconds ago
Gordon Darroch [bio][Twitter]

'I don't want my funeral to be a sombre occasion,' Dad used to say. To this end he split his fortune between six mistresses.

Sunday, December 6th, 20095.575 million seconds ago
Laszlo Xalieri [bio][web][Twitter]

Hollow gingerbread man, licorice lace innards, prune heart. In the head, a cookie fortune. It pounds the inside of the oven door.

Thursday, December 3rd, 20095.835 million seconds ago
michelle shyman [bio][web][Twitter]

One hundred thousand

Transparent hairs on your face

Blotting salt-hot tears

Wednesday, December 2nd, 20095.918 million seconds ago
Gordon Darroch [bio][Twitter]

She said she was out of my league. So I asked: "What about a cup-tie?" Really, I should have seen the penalty kick coming.

Tuesday, December 1st, 20095.994 million seconds ago
S. Kay [bio][Twitter]

A train whistle slips through the rain. Your memory Dopplers into my past. I bleed coffee and update a pie chart.

Thursday, November 26th, 20096.427 million seconds ago
Jonathan Pinnock [bio][web][Twitter]

When she met him, the rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun shone once more. The drought lasted the rest of her life.

Monday, November 16th, 20097.287 million seconds ago
Jason Bradford [bio][Twitter]

Are trees offended standing

by telephone poles? Do they aspire

to charged practicality?

Thursday, November 12th, 20097.629 million seconds ago
Andrew Taylor [bio][web][Twitter]

Watford Gap verge through coffee steam

hum of traffic noise

knowing we are an hour away - the beauty of the service station

Tuesday, November 3rd, 20098.431 million seconds ago
Andrew Taylor [bio][web][Twitter]

My private motorway, from childhood football after construction to arrival at Wigan homeward bound, clear route past roundabout town

Sunday, November 1st, 20098.592 million seconds ago
Uri Grey [bio][Twitter]

Ever since the Church replaced the Blood of Christ with the Extract of Opium, reported Visions of Mary became ever so glorious.

Monday, October 19th, 20099.72 million seconds ago
Olivia Berrier [bio][Twitter]

I pulled the alarm as a joke. I didn't know about the real fire, but no one believed me. My school needed a hero, not a clown.

Sunday, October 18th, 20099.812 million seconds ago
Ann Marie Gamble [bio][web][Twitter]

She marked out "susurrated" and sent the article back. "We're not writing for wine drinkers. And I want to see your receipts."

Wednesday, October 14th, 200910.156 million seconds ago
Deborah Walker [bio][Twitter]

Charon trawls the internet for discarded avatars. Small, surplus lives, flotsam of the electronic sea.

Sunday, September 27th, 200911.632 million seconds ago
michelle shyman [bio][web][Twitter]

A great business plan

Cartoon character condoms

That talk like puppets

Saturday, September 19th, 200912.32 million seconds ago
michelle shyman [bio][web][Twitter]

A great business plan

You pay me to ram, scrape, wreck

Bad drivers near you

Friday, September 18th, 200912.412 million seconds ago
Christine! [bio][web][Twitter]

He is my charge. My long fuse, my ominous weather report. Nocturne, shiver. Sailboat on a moon river.

Monday, August 31st, 200913.956 million seconds ago
Beth Katte [bio][web][Twitter]

Watching a woodpecker go at our shed with such gusto, I didn't have the heart to tell him it was aluminum.

Friday, August 21st, 200914.809 million seconds ago
Ann Marie Gamble [bio][web][Twitter]

He sleeps so hard he looks dead. Then he sighs, unaware of the seizure of love and fear aroused in the quiet. I fold more laundry.

Thursday, August 20th, 200914.911 million seconds ago
Ann Marie Gamble [bio][web][Twitter]

I roll your words around my mouth

Like a plum

Taste them.

Wednesday, August 19th, 200915.004 million seconds ago
Matthew Purdy [bio][Twitter]

No one hates the Beatles as much as the guy calling numbers at the DMV. "Number eight," he says, then grimaces.

Friday, August 7th, 200916.012 million seconds ago
Jeremy Lewit [bio][web][Twitter]

he is a fishnet jobbing as a windsock

corkboard bobbing, hoping the sea opens

unmoored, he says send me a storm for a doorway

Monday, July 13th, 200918.177 million seconds ago
Beth Katte [bio][web][Twitter]

vile hissing possum

lost traction on its entrails

can’t outrun my car

Friday, July 10th, 200918.43 million seconds ago
Matthew Purdy [bio][Twitter]

As my friend told me about Peak Oil, my tongue fretted the crack in my bottom left molar. I nodded and took another sip of my coke.

Thursday, July 9th, 200918.525 million seconds ago
joannemerriam [bio][web][Twitter]

In the brownstone, a couple fighting in the tub soaks the floor. Their laughter runs into the drip of your ceiling.

Saturday, July 4th, 200918.95 million seconds ago
Rachel Sawaya [bio][web][Twitter]

We throw a body off the ship and his fellows follow in a macabre necklace. Begging hands snatch my ankle as they rush by.

Monday, June 29th, 200919.393 million seconds ago
kaolin fire [bio][web][Twitter]

Non-violent protesters jailed for life. Fascist state feeds and clothes them: socialism creeps in, a hesitant embrace.

Friday, June 19th, 200920.254 million seconds ago
Matthew Purdy [bio][Twitter]

"You're wasting music," my parents said. I turned off the radio and listened to branches scraping the house, forks tapping plates.

Monday, June 1st, 200921.804 million seconds ago
Stephen D. Rogers [bio][web][Twitter]

Each snowflake unique

Crystalline iterations

Sparkle as they die

Friday, May 29th, 200922.082 million seconds ago
Matthew Purdy [bio][Twitter]

The job

of the sky

is to be blue.

How much

does it pay?

Thursday, May 28th, 200922.169 million seconds ago
HD Grogan [bio][web][Twitter]

Departing, I watch the sun expand, consuming planets like Cronus eating his young. What Zeus has left these stones in his stead?

Friday, May 22nd, 200922.667 million seconds ago
lovehound [bio][Twitter]

i prayed to the patron saint of sheep; i dreamt of cinnamon & spices from far-off lands; i walked on sunshine & brushed clouds from my eyes.

Tuesday, May 12th, 200923.542 million seconds ago
Peter Keller [bio][Twitter]

The universe stopped expanding and started to pull back into itself. After the thaw, Henry noticed there were dinosaurs again.

Saturday, May 9th, 200923.799 million seconds ago
JS Graustein [bio][web][Twitter]

Paul Gardner serves beer in ceramic dishes, spilling foam all over the bed. He toasts Rose: Your health, and death to snails.

Tuesday, May 5th, 200924.142 million seconds ago
Peter Keller [bio][Twitter]

old astronauts

yearn for space, unable

to relate to earth

Sunday, May 3rd, 200924.301 million seconds ago
John Poch [bio][web][Twitter]

Love Poem


Sometimes my shirt makes sparks. Watch me take it off.

Friday, May 1st, 200924.478 million seconds ago
Erin Hoffman [bio][web][Twitter]

The warmth of her embrace transcends her steel skull, nylo-gelatin skin, copper arteries. Together we are more than human.

Wednesday, April 29th, 200924.677 million seconds ago
Ben White [bio][web][Twitter]

The man on the street hacks a coconut with a machete, hands it to her with a straw and a smile, his life a novelty for her soft, pale hands.

Thursday, April 16th, 200925.807 million seconds ago
Edmund Conti [bio][Twitter]

Sweet corn for supper

Grinning

From ear to ear.


Saturday, April 11th, 200926.231 million seconds ago
Edmund Conti [bio][Twitter]

Kamikaze Pilot


When I came home

I didn't get

a hero's welcome.

Friday, April 10th, 200926.313 million seconds ago
Jennifer Cripe [bio][Twitter]

Dusk


In the early

evening, brown

glows

like neon. Faces

are lost

in the scuffle

between light and dark.


Saturday, April 4th, 200926.798 million seconds ago
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