David Prater (Australia): Two Poems

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

OH GOD!

oh god yeah god my god my oh
yes james joyce ulysses yes yes
penguin modern classics yeah
my god yes yes & a penguin oh
i'm coming over many penguins
yes more penguins yes & books
yes a book filled with penguins
yes lots & lots of poems yes oh
yes yes stop no start go yes god
oh yes leave it right there go yes
yep yep schnell yes hell yes oh
bless god yes yes yes god oh no
god no yes no ts suck my breast
eliot yes ts yes not yet go no oh
hard as hit my arse & go hard ts
go go go ts stop no go god go go
hell yes heaven no go zone that's
yes right there in english oh yes
english yes that's english oh god
pocket rocket god yes throbbing
yes wet yes oh yes molly oh god
yes blooming blooming god yes
flower fucking yes my god that's
yes yes yes not no god no god in
a knot yes not there yet stop yes
god yes god yeah no no go on &
oh yes on & on & on a river yes
yes by the river yes god on & on
like a river yes god god no don't
hold on god oh no gods all gone

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 (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