A Capella & Friend (From ArSaPoG)

By Arlo Salinger

open field night
lips
to make you
beat room
look
woman
i saw
god told rain
forward
and moat
tears
do you
other arm
green
portuguese kiss
never
staring
open field
boat
gutted
knives fall
said something
two friends
flowers
caress

Poem JC

By Jewel Chark

Schicksal (Fate)

By Lindsay Ely

Als Odin mich zu meiner Bahn fü As Odin guides me to my new path,
Diese Sackgassen betrauern den Menschen, der ich war. Those dead ends mourn the person I once was.
Sie verweilen wo ich einst gestanden habe,  They linger where I once stood,
Bittend für meine Seele zu regredieren Begging for my soul to regress.
Denn ich habe geistige Welten erreicht, For I have moved to realms they cannot reach,
Sie können mich nicht erreichen.  Facing challenges they could not meet
Ich begegne Herausforderungen, die sie  Without falling:
nicht erfüllen könnten ohne zu fallen: forever standing still.
Immer still stehen

Aber die Norns haben sich noch mehr aufbewahrt.  But the Norns have more in store.
Sie weben mein Schicksal in größe Pläne They weave my fate into bigger plans
Als ich viele Siege und Herausforderungen begegne.   as I face many victories and challenges.
In diese, ich kann den Plan der Götterfür mich sehen.   In this, I can see the gods plan for me.

Girls Are Made of Sea Glass

By Jolie Gagnon

people are pretty like rainbow sea glass 
the sea tumbles each piece until it’s worn smooth
but most shards of glass keep a few sharp edges 

those sharp edges are where the glass is clearest and true to form 
where it’s color is strongest and it’s form is most raw
most untouched by the sea and unworn by the sand 

bits of emerald, copper, cobalt, the occasional bit of turquoise
and an infinite amount of crystalline clarity 
dot each beach and sidewalk and roadway 

to find a piece in a rare color is a treasure
she’s never found purple or pink or orange or yellow 
but will always look for it 

sea glass is everywhere and beautiful and
she can’t help but to look at each piece 
while keeping her distance in case she gets cut on those sharp edges 

she’s afraid to bleed and her edges get sharper each time 
she cracks like the grykes forming under the hot midday sun 
so she leaves each piece of glass where she finds it in the sand 
because each of those people is as sharp as she is 
but god are they beautiful

Rain

By Cassandra Heleen

dissolve in the puddle outside my window
molecules spread open to the sun
a tug of war against absorption
to be food for the grass
death unto life
I only wish that a deer may graze upon mine
so that I may see the world with new eyes

Alien Visitors

By Carlos Yu

We arrive on U.F.O tractor beam
blue-booked sweat-studded
conditioned in northeastern wind
We choked on tropical air
Bodies bruised by remembering
We stand on opposite line like
foreign flags waving our
spangled stars our white stripes

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

No one waves back.
No one understands me My
sister has remember-mouth
From her tongue recall-routes
unravel She talks us through
the country in father-memory
The man behind the plexiglass
parts his lips I hear a wringing

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

I only see the hole in his mouth
the shape of my pain I cough
up old memories I reach for
my brown passport forgotten
in a bygone barangay There
is no Mabuhay, no Welcome
home.

Legacy Is Easier With Webbed Feet

By Alex Crowthers

a whisper in the wind follows ruffled feathers;

sputtered squawks lost by haunting lullabies threatening flooded frozen fractals

there’s a map we don’t see, we dare to know, they must follow.

embedded deep within great goose generations — a task so grand,

geographical separations don’t dare disturb them.

i, a human, admire this feat; a deliberate duty designated from delivery to death.

often i yearn to fly south, a straight shot to my famed fate.

but for now, i’ll settle spying canada’s bird namesake from afar;

myself lost, waiting for wind whispers that will guide me to my

fleeting, flightless future.

Girls and Goats

By Grace Finin

To persuade him that I was no willing subsite for girls and goats is to
wish that you could live and to do so without causes or cares. For
someone, I will always be savage enough to let them impress me for
not more than too many hours which would rather be spent in
isolation. As much as I don’t try, I don’t think I can reach the
gloriousness that they all swear upon me. Recently, mockery has felt
misused with no guidance in thought. And if I were to climb like they
say, I don’t think love would continue to be the same as it stands now.
Filled with shame, ashamed, I am not a present you enjoy
unwrapping. I am the loose bottlecap you kept from your father’s
drink the first night you realized that really any liquid is stronger than
blood.

When I dreamed as a girl, I wanted to no longer be seen. And then I
found out that if I was not seen, then there could be no help given if it
should be needed. I know all the exits; my casket is empty, but the
altar boys follow down only by the trace of my purges.

Insomnia

By Avery Cox

Do tell me if tomorrow comes too soon

You know that I’ve been talking to the moon

She says she knows what’s wrong and right

But not to search

and not to fight

Just dance around as if you know the tune

Receipt

By Nightshade Lily

Plastic landfill
wasteland burying
bodies and
tormenting creatures
we don’t
see at
the bottom
of oceans
too deep
for us,
but killing them