by Michael Borth

“In the coffee aromatics of teacher / And office. Of classroom and marijuana car. Stilted in / The energetic wasteling chant was torn from the magnet / To strum infinite mirror tunnels.”

by Brad Rose

“Of course, it’s all Greek to me, but thanks to the gravity of the situation, what goes up, must come down. We must imagine Sisyphus, light-headed, giggling.“

by Emily K. Sipiora

“I am rotating in the hot / deli case at the gas station / Searing all good / overcooked”

by Howie Good

“My face twists into the anguished expression Christ wears on wall crucifixes – but, of course, without my being worshipped and adored.”

by L. Ward Abel

“I’m a tree frog latching there / onto a glass sky…”

by Carla Sarett

“she steals a drugstore red lipstick / called Fire and Ice or Cherries in the Snow / runs down Broadway in red stilettos /       dips into a sexy red Corvette…”

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”