David Prater (Melbourne, Australia): "Exes & Zeroes"

EXES & ZEROES

sing/ a song of/exes &
zeroes/ just one/ now
down a maple lane/we
walk/together/talk of
breaking up/getting back
together/forever/never
whatevers/slam doors/
walking through them/
first glances/second go/
looks that kill or maim/
circumstance/rhythms/
return home/clothes/off
or on/unanswered calls/
last hopes/chance/hell/
what will we remember/
& where will we be/in
fifty beers/hello there/
what's your name/mix
with wine/hello there/
it's closing time/already/
back to mine/whatever/
see you round/the trap/
or by a traffic light/some
summer afternoon/bye/
oh hi/me again/want to
catch up/sure/name the
place/or time/hang up/
memorise that number/
forget it/next time/see
a hole before stepping/
in it/close the door/&/
sing /with me /xx /oo

Peter Philpott (Bishop's Stortford, UK): from Are We Not Drawn...

From “Are We Not Drawn…”

I'm swamped
- - - and pinched
I know what I ought to do
- - - and don't
dream of escape
- - - a ship
a different shape
- - - a landscape
a stuttering play
- - - don't trust ease
the hardness
- - - the encumbrance
to be aware
- - - the grin of this world
fight against
- - - sufficient to know
there is your hand
- - - the jar, the new
the force of this
- - - never here


*

made me angry
- - - each moment
forged anew
- - - did you think for consistency?
among the brute material
- - - how it's pushed & harmed
do you really think you could control that?
- - - oh boy, that's another era
gone
- - - wandered away from this town
everyone leaves you
- - - & their cloying love
is what actually nourishes
- - - & the occasional rage
I name this feeling
- - - my fingernail is about to fall out
am I made less
- - - how much will I lose?
at the end
- - - everything

Diana Magallon (Colima, Mexico): Three poems

"TORTON & THE BLUEBIRDS"

One person at a time
Two Worlds
affirmation/ing

Earth Mother

and all things
and all things
and all things

. Understanding
Rocks a Spirit.

”RARA AVIS”

...bird...bird...bird...BIRD...bird... a rare bird on earth as his/her
sylvan joys million and one applause ...bird... rara rara raramuri

"GULLIVER"

PACHYDERM |------| PACHYDERM |------| PACHYDERM

pachyderm footsteps edging our gracefull idyll

elephant footsteps rivet this graceful idyll
gracefull
d idi
d
ai
|||
|------| PACHYDERM |------|

Alison Croggon (Melbourne, Australia): "Untitled"

because a day
is made of such different things
shining and avarice
many possible swords
the dust in my hair and the petals
falling from a wet sky

because every day
comes after another day
as if past and future
actually exist
and all the people I have been
sadly and beautifully dissolve
into amber, amber

there is no way back
deep in the sky
another wound opens
wars heave their famines
over every child
and all the leaves are singing
of the strange weather