by Jason Davidson

“for every one balloon I’ve loved, a thousand more have popped like winter bones.”

by R.M. Engelhardt

“The prophets / Have left the building.”

by Joe Amato

“where ascent began / in this once rumored brothel, / my sophomore residence, / now budget hotel. / I held a fourth floor key, / but walked two flights…”

by Steven Bruce

“Because it was cheaper than therapy. / Because sleep never came alone. / Because she left him for a better man. / Because the bottle felt lighter than guilt.”

by Mark Young

“It doesn’t suddenly / fall into place… / Rather, small pieces, frag- / ments of a template, shaken / loose by the coughing fits / that wake you every / hour… / …Sort of like / the leftovers from / a bad acid trip…”

by Rose Knapp

“All sense of self dissolves / Time moves very slowly / Bad trips can make / Paranoia intense…”

by Dario Cvencek

“a clusterfuck of decency / a shitshow of humanity / a bankruptcy of morality…”

by Tempest Miller

The Greek god of wine and ecstasy is on the cross in the drawing room. / The Silenus is in fetters at Halcyon Gallery. / Photocopies of Nietzsche’s letters signed, / der Gekreuzigte / lay on the varnished table.”

by Michael Borth

“When all borders become one. Decisions of the / Barbiturate nocturnals. I remove the goldpowder / from the plate of cranium silver. To better evaluate / the heaving of the wind.”

by Ron Tobey

“Spring begins a poor beggar / clothes torn, thread-bare / bruised, scabbed skin / hungry, unhealthy, thin / though ambitious.”

by Tempest Miller

“I liked lemons once / in orchards on high ground / above the sea.”

by Marisela Zamora

“…he’d be standing dark in a kitchen scrounging / the fridge although daylight and a bug grazing / his scabs strobing lights lighting some cold cuts…”

by William P. Adams

“Jacobo Daye was the Chef of all Trades / His muffins were buttery tender / On the flip side of this / His eel pies were bliss / Until he put both in the blender”

by John Jeffire

“PC…political correctness…personal computer…probable cause…”

by Stephen Brown

“…firemen curl to occupy this precious space, the top of the tower, roof encroaching every corner of every room. Their bulky costumes bunch at their backs, the fabric forming the familiar hunchbacked folds of vulture wings.”

by Jason Ryberg

“the deep- / sea moan of whale song and the / harmonica hum / of the beehive, the fusion / reactor and the lone fire- / fly’s flickering candle-wick.”

by William Taylor Jr.

“We debase ourselves before imagined gods / nobody really believes in / because it’s easier than the void…”

by Eric Subpar

“The sinkhole seems easier. It's right there. It's the only proof of God to which we are allowed access.”

by Eva Alter

“…In thirty-six scorched hours               I traversed

the Styx          A wolf           a deer                and a falcon—

elected                      to serve as convoys—              steered the

catamaran                                after I swore my oath…”

by David Cazden

“A turnip is never too old / to be consumed / and is happy to be thrown / in a cellar, enjoying the damp / of its thoughts.”