Poetry from J.D. Nelson

the ballpoint earth
 
here comes the bat with a message
look for earth to be the standard by the year 3000
 
the leaky wooden good hat
if that’s what you mean by machine plums
 
we saw the whales fly into the sun
science is doing new things with rice
 
that last yes is the cherry of the goon loop
what makes the world the shadow of an egg?
 
the battle of the light bulbs
an accidental episode

 
the face of the comma
 
carp was a leather fresh name
I was the rock of the foam
 
dart is the common expression
a chain of the ezekiel fresh lemon
 
three favorite yarns to be the clemens of the holograph
the continued friend of the bass is the mountain of the wolf
 
the spinning hoof of the caramel chain
cannon puncture one of the numbs
 
to zap one more of the camera parrots
we need that mirror to scorp a new headline
 
to sea leaf a french feather
spock was a diet coke
 
the low earth for the pledger
the burped earth
 
grease could lock a duffle
or trout of that seven is the cloud of the henry

 
slot tick that natural name
 
the worm hat is the barrier of cyclops the martian
baseball is the complete ward of the saturn
 
another morse had that serpent
that charcoal instinct and that mirror of the paste
 
a world of the language is the creeping hand
the lightning of the laugh
 
the complete worm is the slice of the country
that language of the bat is the spinning silver and glue
 
your land is the crayon of the sheep
the seventh head and the little earth is the power of the salt
 
the chair of the windmill
all right dolphin

 
a rainbow of coinage
 
work is the dollar of the trewes
roo, or that fork is a bus of the merit
 
would it be the dungeon dove
to glove a coup of the stereo raisins?
 
the law of the pirate shape
the dollar buff is the coin grief of madrid
 
the wolf can lower the thermostat
the good glass of the world and that smash of the madison square
 
rice yes a lock of power was the craft of paper in the sink
the help of the coloring book
 
the world of peanut butter
in that old bacon magazine

 
bio/graf
 
J. D. Nelson (b. 1971) experiments with words in his subterranean laboratory. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Cinderella City (The Red Ceilings Press, 2012). Visit www.MadVerse.com for more information and links to his published work. Nelson lives in Colorado.

Mixed media from Daniel de Culla

Childlike drawing of blue fish swimming around a covered yellow dinner plate. On the plate are various unidentifiable objects of various colors. A three-tined fork floats off to the bottom left.

PLASTIC PLANKTON

AS AN UNIQUE DISH

Between Borneo and the Celebs

And between Bali and Lombock

Between continental islands

& Oceanic islands

Volcanic islands

& motherporic islands

Corpulent mammals had gathered

With some groups of Amphibians

Freshwater Fish and Mollusks

To a single plate table

With plastic plankton

As tasty morsel

Surrounded by birds and insects

Who have flown by:

Insects, Reptiles and small mammals

Arrived on floating objects

Drifting.

They talked about those terrestrial beings

Pilgrims of Life

And for life

From inn, hotel, river or beach

Beings for most of them garbage.

-They eat their own shit

And believe themselves gods

Said some, and anothers:

–One live to smell and others to taste.

They are disgusting beings, obscene, filthy

And ugly as they alone.

They only know how to talk about

Christian battles against the Moors.

Their loves as their beliefs and faith

Are a hell of a time.

They love, kill and rape

Like pigs that they are

Not caring to put Love

Through any of the holes

Of the One or the Another.

-Their desire is to destroy, stain

And dirty everything

Comment another.

-They look behind a mirror

And to justify their filthiness

Say that they are created by a god

Called Porras

Saying that he forgive them all

When the plain truth

Is that their origin comes to them

Of the crossing

Between bats and rats

And so they are so liars and charming.

A mysticetus whale

That did not reach a complete development

And therefore functional activity

Categorically stated:

–See these human beings

Some earthly and other aliens

Walking along the seashore

Or lying in the sand of the beaches

We can assure

That the origin of all of them

Comes from symbiosis

Between actinias and a hermit

(Pagurus striatus)

Or among the crab Dromia vulgaris

And the Suberites domuncula sponge

That masks it.

How have the face have the ass

Similar to the ass of the cute

Or that of Termitoxenia heimi

Termitephile diptera of India.

A cirriped seated on the shield

Of a sea turtle, said:

-Well, now, happy diners

Do the digestion

Of cellulose and plastics.

 And every species for itself¡   

-Daniel de Culla

Poetry from J.K. Durick


                Some Music

Beethoven gets second billing on this one,
It’s his complete concertos and sonatas, but
The pianist gets top billing and his picture
On the album cover, after all he sat there
At his piano for fourteen hours and thirteen
Minutes for this final draft, this final take,
Plus how many hours practicing, rehearsing
To get Ludwig’s intentions just right, like this.
Imagine a world measured in sonatas, timed
Out in movements in different keys, here we
Are in the middle of it, Beethoven’s take on
It, begin at eight in the morning, play it on
Through the day, background allegro, adagio,
Prestissimo and rondo as we do are daily bit,
Some laundry, some dishes, some quick clean
Up, before we give it a once over to be sure
We did it all, and in the background we have
Our pianist playing – till, what would it be, ten
Thirteen PM? It’s not hard to picture him now
Getting up from his hours of work, the complete
Sonatas and concertos done, he closes the keyboard
In a rather dramatic fashion, then he probably
Watches the late news on TV, and finally, to sum up
His day, he goes off to bed – like the rest of us.




             Canadian Geese

They must not get stopped at the border
the way the rest of us would be, it’s been
closed for months now, Canada on one
side, the US on the other, pandemics can
do that to friends, but they fly over us all
in their ragged V-shaped formations and
squawk their complaints in neither French
or English, complaints, I’m sure, they have
made for centuries of migration, following
the seasons like this. They stop along the way,
a field nearby can hold hundreds, thousands
it seems when they get restless, begin to form
up their wedges to set out again, it’s as if they
are choosing up sides or maybe just choosing
what leader to follow; they know each other,
never seem to fight, except when they get
squawking which sounds like arguing, perhaps
arguing about navigation or leadership or where
to stop at the end of another day. These are just

geese, noisy communal beings following what
nature has set out for them, Canada one day, then
heading south, borderless, relentless, a reminder
how things should always be.


                     Novel Life

The hero of the book I’m reading is wandering
the streets of Marrakesh with great ease, even
names the streets and areas as if we plan to visit
and use him as our trusty guide on our next trip
to Marrakesh. For him there’s no language issues
in Marrakesh, everyone speaks English or at least
the people he talks to do, no one seems to speak
Arabic or Berber, which according to Wikipedia
are the two languages normally spoken by people
in Morocco, but our hero, world traveler and spy
extraordinaire cuts through the things that would
stumble us, drops a dirham or two getting things
done, sips drinks with beautiful women in the best
hotel bars. TripAdvisor doesn’t list the place he’s
staying, but it must have been selected because of
its atmosphere and guest diversity, the beautiful
blonde, the rugged Russian spy and our guy, who
no one supposed to know is a spy guy too, MI6 or
is it 7, I always confuse the two, but he’s undercover
as all good spies must be. But in the end the plot
and its outcome are simple and predictable, heroes
in the books I read win in the end, but I don’t read
them for that – it’s the place, for a few hours I get
to wander the streets of Marrakesh, spending lots
of dirhams, speaking English and a bit of broken
Berber to beautiful women and other spies that are
in some exotic hotel bar.

J. K. Durick is a retired writing teacher and online writing tutor. His latest writing project is writing a poem a day during what seems like this endless pandemic – it’s in the two hundreds now. His recent poems have appeared in Literary Yard, Black Coffee Review, New Feathers Anthology, Synchronized ChaosMadswirl, and Highland Park Poetry.

Poetry from Moustafa Dandoush

Young Syrian guy, short beard, blue and red checkered polo shirt, sunglasses atop his head of brown hair
Moustafa Dandoush
“Sugar”
 
Green sugar, fascinated me since first eye-match,
Transformed everything lean into chubby,
Seemed Honeyed more than the heavenly honey,
Bees always fight 'cause- It’s rarely found.
 
Sugar diamond lights
More than sun-moon together,
Green rainbow is cheerful
More than festival lights,
Green medicine heals
every patient with its taste.
 
God, the one who created,
So shall we keep thinking!
How attractive, stunning, and super it is?


“You're a puzzle!”
 
I Podría merecer algo mejor, pero solo a ti quiero.
Ik verdien might misschien beter, maar ik wil alleen jou.
Je mérite deserve peut-être mieux, mais c'est seulement toi que je veux.
म_ बेहतर लायक हो better, सकता _ं, ले_कन यह केवल आप चाहते ह_।
Daha iyisini hak edebilirim, but ama sadece senin istediğim sensin.
Talvez eu mereça melhor, mas é só It's você que eu quero.
我也许应该得到更好的,但是我只 only 想要你。
B'fhéidir go mbeinn níos fearr, ach níl uait you ach.
私はより良いに値するかもしれませんが、それは私が望むあなた I だけです。
Potrei meritare di meglio, ma è solo tu che voglio want.
 
 

Poetry from Mahbub

Middle aged South Asian man with glasses and combed black hair and a white collared shirt

The Bubbling Words

I can’t say any word to please your heart

I know I always stagger on the sandy land

My river dries up

The boat touches its bottom

In this vague consequence

I only bubble

Feel like joyous at your jolly face

Glows with an excitement

It’s my mother’s lap walks me forward

I hobble and bubble

It’s my mother’s hand rising high

Charms the world I laugh and cry.

Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh
11/11/2019

The Hungry Falcon

The hungry falcon is just waiting

Waiting for the little body

The little dying baby dashing down on the ground

Only after some moment the bird will satisfy its belly

The torn dry leaves scattered around

None but the falcon stands by

O hunger, who are you?

The world is bursting out

Pathos drops into our soul

We enjoy our days

So many ways

The dying baby is going to close its eyes

Lying on the ground

The hungry falcon is just waiting.

Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh
11/11/2019

The Horseshoes

Who likes to spend the time all for the shoes?

To be nailed in the hoof of a horse

Beaten and trodden rubbing out the skin

Bleeding and throbbing

Struggling with the forswears

Nothing smiles over

Heart, always cries for what?

Rivers continue to dry up

Birds migrate to the others

Heaven burns with fires

Devils take over the charge

Satan rules the earth

After being pastured the day long

Just reaching the nest all my pigeons, hens and cocks die

Can we see the bleeding humanity?

The horseshoes can’t last too long.

Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh
14/11/2019

The Overwhelming Night

The night appears too long

It moves me more often than not

The soft wind was blowing

The clear moon was shinning

Feeling so glad

Twinkling the stars on my face

The silence of the night spoke to me hissing

Like an angel

Instantly it started to feel the heart scared and trembling

Nothing to see as eyes closed not to play hide and seek

Sleeping eyes feeling joy in fear

In the shinning moonlit long with my grandfather

In the abyss of silence I felt the overwhelming night to the bone.

Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh
14/11/2019

The Heart Speaks before

The eyes of the hyenas

Devour me every moment

My rolling stake

This muddy heart always swings in

You can see on the face

But I feel like touchy

When you move on telling

 ‘O soft hearted dear,

You are so loving

I can see the light spreading over.’ 

Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh
14/11/2019

Poetry from Coco Kiju

Is it only me???

It’s been a decade now,
Since we last saw each other.
But it still hurts me to know,
That you’ve moved on with another.

I still remember our times together,
When we talked about ‘happily ever after’.
Sometimes I can’t help but wonder,
Is it only me, or do you also still remember?

Every other night, I look at your picture,
And reach for my phone to dial your number.
But if I really called, would it be a bother?
Is it only me, or do you also still suffer?

I still listen to the same songs,
That you used to sing only for me.
I try my best to stay strong.
Is it only me, or do you also still think of me?

It’s so damn crazy, how I never knew,
That I could never move on to someone new.
It’s sad that you’ll never know how I long for you,
Is it only me, or do you wanna come back to me too?

Surakshya Kiju, a.k.a. Coco, is a 23-years-old girl who is passionate about writing. She is a blogger at Poems From Heart, where she pours her heart out, laying bare her emotions as she portrays the world through her eyes. Her poems—which range from rhymes to sonnets—have been published in literary magazines like Cambridge Hall Poetry Journal. Each day, she strives for self-improvement, even as she inspires others through her own poetry. Please check out her blog at : www.poemsfromheartcom.wordpress.com

Elizabeth Hughes’ Book Periscope

Yellow and red and green splashy colors, text reads 'The Only Book a Kid Needs to Read about Coronavirus Ever' in white letters. White man and black woman scientist in lab coats and bright blue pants talk on the right and a microscope looks down on a stylized coronavirus with sunglasses and a beard.
Dr. S.G. Jack’s The Only Book on Coronavirus A Kid Needs to Read, Ever

The Only Book A Kid Needs To Read About the Coronavirus Ever by Dr. S. G. Jack

This is a very informative book about this horrible virus that is so dangerous and became a pandemic. It is written so that children will be able to understand it and I believe it could be informative for teens and adults as well. It explains why the virus is so dangerous, how easy it is to spread and why wearing masks and social distancing is so important. It explains how it spreads and why there are not that many treatments for it. It also explains why doctors and scientists are learning about it along with everyone else. Since the virus is now becoming worse with many, many more new cases, I believe that every family should read this regardless of whether or not you have small children.

S.G. Nair’s book is available here.

What If? by Paula Hayes

Cover of Paula Hayes' short book What If? Pencil drawing of the right half of a middle aged white man's face. He has short hair and you can clearly see his right eye and ear. Looks like clouds and a field in the background.


What If? by Paula Hayes may only be 45 pages long, however, it has a very strong and deep message. This story may be fiction but could be very believable. It is the story of a woman named Paula, who is getting her coffee one morning when she looks over at the park. She makes eye contact with a man who is conversing with another. When they make eye contact, it is though he looks deep into her soul. She tells her husband about this man she only knows as Jesse.

For awhile he believes her. As days go on, more civil unrest breaks out, as though it is a war between good and evil. Jesse continues to spread the message of peace and love. This book has a very powerful message. It would be a great book to read in this time of unrest and hatred. The message just might enlighten the reader. It really touched me deeply.

Paula Hayes’ What If is available here from Indie Bound. It’s published by The Writer Central.