Devon Balwit
Credo
Tell me you also
find worship
in the haunches
of a leaping dog.
Devon Balwit writes her poems between work, wine, and walking her dog—the proportions of each vary.
Barry Marks
Life. In Metric Feet.
The I am that is life
moves from proud trochee
to adamant iamb
to the last pyrrhic dance
to silence.
Barry Marks is facing reality one sentence at a time.
Laura Sweeney
Home Was Not a Norman Rockwell
God is great, God is good,
and I thanked Him for my food,
my mother to my left, my father to my right,
as we sat around the table
by the portrait of the Lord’s Supper
before grace shattered like the glass door
I ran through in Sunday school.
Laura Sweeney facilitates Writers for Life in central Iowa, is an MFA candidate at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA, and is a reader for Eastern Iowa Review.
Jason M. Vaughn
The Razor
glides across the dance floor of your skin,
and sometimes it cuts in.
and sometimes it cuts in.
Jason M. Vaughn lives and writes in Burbank, CA.
Megan Collins
The Comedian’s Tears
I couldn’t help
but see them
as translucent bullets
loaded
into the chambers
of her eyes,
couldn’t help
but think
that to blink
would be
to pull the trigger,
to prove
that some wounds
can make
even comedians
cry.
Megan Collins is a writer, teacher, and editor who lives in Connecticut.
Megan Collins
When Athena Can’t Sleep
She remembers
her father’s skull,
how her armor
grew from bone,
how the days
spent whipped
by his pulse
never undid her skin.
Megan Collins is a writer, teacher, and editor who lives in Connecticut.
Megan Collins
Lethe
She went to the water
to drown
an old love,
but it clung
to her body
like the wet
white lace
of her dress.
Megan Collins is a writer, teacher, and editor who lives in Connecticut.
Matt Rouse (2 poems)
THE WISDOM OF BONNIE (AGE 7)
If you drink from the tap,
you’ll grow three heads.
THE WISDOM OF LOIS (AGE 8)
Never stand in front of a Pikachu
with a cold.
When Matt Rouse writes poetry, the voices in his head stop shouting.