Checkpoint Lurching, they bluster – ghouls into the chasm. Fierce lava, blowing, nullifies their fall And dissipates harsh gravity’s concussion, Forces a seething screen of phoenix cowardice, Leaping to swell Into a fresh, mendacious crust, Tripping and throttling the led Into a smear upon pure metamorphic beauty. The skeleton’s jaws yawn apart; A stranded mountaineer was frozen At his prime […]
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A Bit of News Not Fake An article in the paper reports something one doesn’t see happen in America very often. Eighty billionaires, millionaires and others close to that level in New York have written to their lawmakers and governor asking to have their taxes raised. They want to support schools, build roads and bridges, and help the poor […]
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The Waking Nightmare IN THE WAKE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS I RISE AND BLINK HAVE I BEEN LAUGHING HAVE I BEEN CRYING HAVE I BEEN AFRAID OR EXALTED HAVE I SEEN MY UNCONSCIOUS HAVE I BEEN TO OTHER WORLDS HAVE I SEEN THE OTHER OR IS IT ALL BUT A DREAM WHERE I WEPT AND RAN AND […]
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AT HOHENSALZBURG – By Ray Gallucci (in Salzburg, Austria) Upon this mountain high All comers I defy With walls that can’t be scaled And Gates in iron veiled. Above my Town of Salt, I, Hohensalzburg Fort, Defend where Mozart grew And Von Trapp legend too. And though I may be old, My fires’ embers cold, My memory is […]
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sparks – By Nicolo Santilli peek into a distant world where the light is brighter so that some of its light spills through the opening for it lies buried as a potential in this world like a clear spark to ignite the particular this world wants to breathe fully […]
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Glass Tanka cat paws the moth stays safe a fluttering Vishnu behind glass made braver by distance scrawny coyote its laughs echo breaking glass in his finger tip the glass splinter a million fires burning
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Ink dries on my skin the way breath does on yours. You have lost the way to this parched strip of land and I have refused the silence required to get to yours. We are stranded, mud stained and moist with moss-green regret, a galaxy of hesitations apart. Bio: Valentina Cano is a student of classical singing who […]
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A stiff razor-edged blade slices – By Gil Hoy through pulsating flesh, as the hot orange sun glistens on freshly red-tainted steel. No moans, no cries, no gasps, as the core of a rational caring human being falls to the ground with a sickening thud. A disgusted Prime Minister, with rows of soldiers in neatly pressed uniforms […]
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Even as a child Charles couldn’t forgive other children not for something they had done but rather for who they were. They were inferior and couldn’t help it, his parents both agreed. Charles couldn’t stand any of them. This continued his entire life. Charles almost married a woman he had hired only to discover later she wasn’t perfect, no better than the little people he had hired to wrap and mail thousands […]
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House for Sale in Shady Acres The question isn’t why your little world is suddenly going to hell. The question is what can you do about the black couple touring the house on your block where the sign just went up day before yesterday. The neighbors are calling and everyone’s asking what can be done before they buy it. Old Smitty is barely cold in […]
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