Olvido by Alahna Alvé     Versions   There’s a color picture I found of the Astoria Hotel. Superimposed on it is a black and white photo with a Russian tank before the marquee. I found it online one night, months ago, too anxious to sleep,to come back here, yes, to see you, but not just for that, don’t let hogy elszálljon az agyad with yourself. The picture comes to mind as I smoke outside this bar, Astoria’s sleek face in clear view, my toes numbing by degrees. You’re inside, cradling a beer, a writer on either side of you. I’m waiting for you to pay your bill, to walk me ..read more

A Night to Remember by Brea’n Thompson     Swallowing Beauty   She used to sleep in a sad little alley, wrapped in her favorite heap of trash bags. Everything changed when Mr. Mayor invited her to tea. Said an uncle she never knew gave her inheritance. Said from now on she had to pay taxes. Said he needed a token of appreciation too. Before this, he never cared about her. When she had told him that she really needed to swallow beauty, he just walked by. Now he smiled and said that he’ll do everything in his power to make it come true. She always wanted to swallow beauty. W ..read more

Purple Noise by Andrea Damic     On Aspen Tree   “The pain was what it was. Beyond it there was nothing to say… If someone wanted to impart physical pain, he would be forced to inflict and thereby become a torturer himself.”—Jean Améry   I feel crippled reading Celan in English, needing Joris as an Okie does a hoe. Something is lost in my digging. In hushed scrubs, hawksbeards strangle dandelions. Oh, how unlike the green Ukraine is my russet West! A rain cloud hovers above and shades the Great Plains with an ominous air, as if it will pour ash or, worse, dust. Shreds ..read more

Sunflow   Clare Newton Bending Photography Towards Constructivist     Strike blue Windsurf Imaginesquare In the artist’s words: Clare Newton. My art practice is deeply rooted in dimensional thinking and classic grounding. I specialize in using photographic composite techniques to connect rich interpretations from researched subject matter to create innovative pieces that transform contemporary photography into a new art form. I find great joy in immersing myself in a subject and pushing the boundaries of my camera to discover new ways of expressing my work. My influences in ..read more

Veil between Lives by Eric Chamberlain            Before the Fall   Falls fed by rivers, arteries to the earth, have a way of coupling countries, collecting cultures of people weaving space. The Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall placement, purple-fluorescent magnolias posted in courtyards, panoramic, a sepia storybook painting—blurred, conducting a gas stream spraying the grim by a prism spectrum against the chess positioned rocks. A family of three forgets to count contrasting skin bodies in their aqua-seated craft on the Rhein River. Their son finds slumber ..read more

  Adam Brenza How We Gather Ghost-like the Real Wake of Our Intentions     Each piece — in its attempt to answer the question, “How does one write a poem adequate to this era?” — is entirely composed of the titular phrase. For my part, when trying to compose poetry, the old forms feel so inadequate. I don’t mean obviously outmoded forms like sonnets and villanelles, but lyrical, free-verse poetry in general, poetry centered on the individual experiences and emotive declarations of an unquestionably stable first-person identity, poetry that serves to create narratives, wheth ..read more

a change is gonna come by Gary Frier       SOMEWHERE NOWHERE   Don’t shop for a poem. There are no cage-raised or certified organic inscriptions like on a carton of eggs. No aisles to saunter & purchase a washing powder poem. Or a verse for dessert. A poem lights on your heart like a gentle breath of air.   Don’t visit a park looking for a poem. Musing squirrels hoisted on hind legs smiling & chewing acorns. Yielding your ears to the ballads of birds. Or ogling the grandeur of a giant oak. The most meditative poem alights on a mother as she feeds baby her ..read more

Art: The Gorge at Bicay from the collage series “Building Machines” by Spyridon Kaprinis     Perseverance Lands on Mars   & conflagrations candle all the anthrax that seeps into the streets but in the heart there is only violence enough to retire in Miami. A smile twists across the boxes that bulge out of trash cans while a child’s old trophies sunshine the clustered windowpanes. Napalm stagnates in a vast bathtub & pantries crowding the kitchen exorcise maize from the mouths of devout dust storms. Pulsing through the shallows, plastic bags dazzle snappers & sel ..read more

Art by Peter Bethanis   Head Growth   My head popped off as I brushed my teeth. “You brush too hard. I’m rolling away to find a gentler owner,” my head barked up from my bathroom floor. After I walked into three street poles, I stumbled bloody into work where Abagail in accounting planted a head seed in the soil of my neck. By lunch, I sprouted a chin. At dusk, I gained new eyes to guide my body through neighborhood growth. In the shadow of a lemon tree, I plucked a yellow globe and peeled back the skin to reveal stinging delight that stained my face. Back before my bathroom mirr ..read more

  Ralph Maratta     The Fortress Walls Whispered Back        A battle for souls and the molecules of more             Across the fields, armies of skeletons slayed         Beneath the surface, wisdom convenes          Clouds sauntered to mingle with the peaks, gossiping about what each had seen         Love is in the trenches of the day- to-day         Maybe language can’t get it right         She lifted her veil &nbs ..read more