THE DOGE’S PALACE – By Ray Gallucci (in Venice, Italy) The bones remain, but flesh is gone, The lungs that breathed, heart pumping strong, The ruling brain that made it great – The Doge’s Palace, left to Fate. Amid the fossils, can you feel The power once it dared to wield, Controlling trade through maritime Predominance of Venice prime? […]
Read more
Tequila (V5) By Michael Lee Johnson Single life is Tequila with a slice of lime, Shots offered my traveling strangers. Play them all deal them jacks, some diamonds then spades, hold back aces play hardball, mock the jokers. Paraplegic aging tumblers toss rocks, Their dice go for the one-night stand. Poltergeist fluid define another frame. Female dancers in the […]
Read more
within those man stone walls promoting their god bringing us to him i told the priest- you tell us to be content with poverty while you live in this big house throwing us scraps begged from money lenders. this is not what Jesus asked his disciples to do. this is not what he died for. he said live amongst […]
Read more
Dear John (the Sophie to Der Rosenkavalier) By Frank De Canio Just like the Marschallin had been resigned to cede her lover to the ingénue to whom his heart would later be inclined, so Marietta’s mistress bade adieu to her so that her “Quinquin” could pursue no younger woman but a different sex than formerly she’d been accustomed to. Perhaps […]
Read more
HOTAND COLD Perhaps 100million years To rise from naught, then disappear Above the Hot Spot in the Earth That to Hawaiian Chain gave birth. The oldest now perhaps just stumps, Once mountains proud, now merely bumps Long passed from magma cauldron where They first broke through the surface there. The youngest rise majestically For miles above […]
Read more
More “Sold,” she said, as I stared in awe and wonder. But I had questions, important questions! Yet, I was silent in the face of her edict, her bright red and white sign. It was gone. So easily gone. So quickly gone. But how? Who decides what’s for sale? Who names the price? This place, this spot […]
Read more
My Awkuzu Mistake Maybe it’d been a perfect end That time we shared at Awkuzu On crumpled cotton bedsheets— Testimony of what we called love Or maybe we should’ve just ended it That infamous night in February You confessed I was not the only one And yet you called it love That was not the only lie […]
Read more
Photography – Kayaker (By Melissa R. Mendelson)
Read more
FALL TONES (By Joseph Cavera) A young lad awakes to cold on Sunday Stirring slowly, quakes to life his way His covers like lovers unravel above Another of is brothers leaving a shove He sees the light peak through his door It glistens through the glass o’er The window that sits by Reflecting and resonating with Images of […]
Read more
Small Packages – By Gil Hoy I’d like to drink up the Universe from a can of Diet Coke, bought from my ancestors’ most virtuous moments. With no deposit required–can’t be returned without your consent, a secret label on the side that reads: “only the purest, natural ingredients.” Has a pull tab that opens like a forever Christmas morning […]
Read more