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Love |
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Lonely
Painting by Monica Barrameda |
Natalie Parker |
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The
Price You Pay by Clayton Beach |
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The
Tale of the Queen of Endor by Clayton Beach |
Love, I'm keeping you alive. Maybe I'll never really know you like I want to, maybe that's what it is. But today and tomorrow and all those many ahead, I'm going to look you in the eye when you come near. Too many of us forget you, there are days we swear off your stain, Nights when whatever light you gave Seems more like the screen behind our own inevitable X-ray. Give us time then, give us light then, Though guarded with all kinds of mismatched armor, we are yours completely. We are waiting without realizing we are waiting. We leave y your invitation in its envelope, like it’s a red letter. Like it’s a letter that we can predict just from appearance. In reality, you are stealthy. You are smoother than a grinning George Clooney, On his best hair day, the way you sneak in. You could be a rattling freight train in the dead of night and still surprise us. It is because we only see an empty train, we never see the cargo coming. Heaven forbid we do, then we immediately derail it with only the best of intentions, And leave one another long messages on the answering machine. You are more than a fire, because you not only transform things, you unearth them. Constantly we reach for the flame, Because we know you could melt each mask, one by one, But our hands are thwarted by our pride, and we struggle to know what the true rebellion In our heart is. Someday I'll really warm my hands by you, I will be held responsible in the dark, and my hands won’t betray, They will be ready with kindling. Someday I'll know what it means to lie down beneath a stone studded garden with tear Stained petals for you like you did for me. My initials are already carved in that wood. Waist deep in our dust, we only worry for time because it makes your absence greater Than sky without the moon; pale against the window sill, there is nothing sharing us from room to room. The stars turn like frozen lighthouse beams in the dark for you. Fireworks blossom like long legged golden spiders for you. Man and Nature, both try their best to shine beneath you, to reflect some of the light. All the wise ones keep you closer in grasp than a four leaf clover. Some of us, we garner makeshift idealizations of you, prop you up in the cornfield and let The protection come from the source alone. We think you don't need us to exist, like a gargoyle that won't fall down with the collapse Of the castle walls, stone by stone. In all these ways we mistake you for a blind benefactor, when it is us that refuse to see. Love, I meant for this to be brief, I meant to stop making a fool of myself. But I see that in your honor, that will never do. I see that in your honor, we are forgiven our scribbled testaments, If it is an attempt at keeping you alive. |
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Wintersong
by Clayton Beach |
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Mad
Dogs Bite by Janet Berend |
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Desert
Firefly by Taen Bounthapanya Third Place Winner, Poetry |
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Virtual
Reality by Taen Bounthapanya |
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Early
morning staring at an ugly fountain
by Breelyn Burns |
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Ten
Year Old Militia by Breelyn Burns Editor's Choice Award, Poetry |
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Arrogance
Unplugged by Rachel Busnardo |
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Goodbye
My Best Friend by Rachel Busnardo |
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At
a Small-Town Club by Jessica Conaway |
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Red
Stiletto Heels by Jessica Conaway |
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Naked
and Perfect T.C. Cook Second Place Winner, Poetry |
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Too
Far by T.C. Cook |
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Someday by Jermane Cooper |
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The
Girl Who Wrote This Stands at 5’ 2” (on a Good Day) by Shayna Coplan |
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Pontificating
Drunks by Dennis Dorsey |
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The
Symptom by Dennis Dorsey |
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Saturday
Night Pick-Up by Tanya Duer |
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Lost
in a Moment by Jamie Dykstra |
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Denizens
of Brilliance by Holland Elder |
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Between
His Futon and the Bedroom Wall
by Rachel Jones |
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Getting
Lost in National City Trying to Find Acapulco by Rachel Jones Angelo Carli Poetry Prize |
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Having
to Hide by Rachel Jones |
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I Used To Take My Anger Out On Plants by Rachel Jones | ||
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The
Piano by Rachel Jones |
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Words
Like Clay by Rachel Jones |
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Begetting
Tragedy by Chris Joy |
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My
First Last by Chris Joy |
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There's
No Problem Officer by Brittney Krier |
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Ernest
Hemingway (My Cat): A Villanelle by Melanie Maheu |
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The
Small Beauties of Marriage by Melanie Maheu |
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Do
The Punks Still Raise Their High Pumping Fists in the Air? by Brendan Mitchell |
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Love
by Natalie Parker |
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Watching
TV While Having Sex by Jessee Pugliese |
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partner by Ruth Rice |
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Blood by Rachelle Shull |
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Fall by Jacob Triffo |
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Time
Served by Matt Tweedie |
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Romance
to Reality by Aga-Marie Wehrly |
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Solicitude by Matt Whitney |
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Why
We Write by Karen Wooton |