THE NATURAL CAUSE OF THINGS 

I've heard
from old stories
that some Gypsies
taught a horse how to starve.
It died after a while.
/as soon as they taught it how 
to starve, it dropped dead/

It will be heard
from our story
that a poet 
taught a woman how to get over.
She left after a while.
She learned how to get over
and fell in love with someone else.

/the natural course of things/

*

A CLOUD IN TROUSERS 

During those years
I was a cloud
In trousers.
I was Mayakovsky.
And I did not want 
To be a poet
Not at least your poet
Or theirs.
I did not want them to say
How I lived
Or died because of you.
How I died because of love.
I wouldn't want them to be wrong.
I lived love 
With you
And with everyone of them.
During those years
I was a cloud in trousers
With a hole on the belt.

*

Dušan Stojković was born on June 27, 1994.
He lives in Grdelica (Serbia).
He published the collection of poetry "YOU ARE NOT CURSED - It entered the chest, it came out (2021) and the collection of poetry "GRIEF - You irretrievably went to the fields" (2023).
Together with Jelena Sarić Cvetković, he is the founder of the Association MUK (Young Artists of Culture), he is the general director of the international chamber of writers and artists CIESART for Serbia, he is a member of the BUKA Association and the International Association of Writers and Artists GORSKI VIDICI from Montenegro.

Invited Hoop Chalk Canary Beach Tomb

sublime,
          a preface snorkel pucker [wrench
                       wrecks PuMpKiN storefront
]. Elegant layered hunting
                               squabble,
                    nightmare         quack
     quirk                                     quickening.
Docked
        formulated bAg O’ boneyard
                       root toot-toot
                                       scOOp! Badge of
comatose monkey pawn
          , scrubbing pan fried leaning
                                               tEnT pole adverb
crunch [
             lookalike fictional solution dresser
                                                               ]. Passage
without weary altitude smokescreen
                           (jargon) / (football) / (weeds) / / / / /.
      Linger,
a lark on a pedestal handshake
                                      briskly succumbed.




Tarmac Blossoming Relentless Cursive Mummies

sweet puzzle
        my muzzle
locking jaw
        bird spinach
                    , all night’s variable swinging
              , tired & heaving whimpered sleeves

)eager heavenly, complaining( - - -

                       abandon sickle
                           , humming disobedient cleavers,
dramatized lists
& vague pubic analysis.

                        [sleep prevails wispy sparks /
                              ponderous wired teeth decay
       / welts
         map
         the veins of falsehoods / ,
                   tales venting
                   capitalistic burnings].

cipher mangled
destructive paradigms
               liver breached dynamics
               spooling wafted elegance:

                                  changing skin tagged
                                  cherry flavored tattoos
                                  loaded down replenished
      , avoidance caliber spots.  





Possible Punctuation Atrocities

                      f
                      r
                      e
                      e     f , a , i , l , i , n , g      sInK
                                sTOPPer             : :      rushing
                                                                     eclectic
                                                                     trolley. Living
kitchen nail gun w/in festivities
                                       ,,      carriage
      cr
         owd   ed             earthbound           raven
                       : : scorching philosophical
                           roundabouts     : :    pressurized
                                                                     zealots
, , , unleashed mongoose brat
                 : sprig
                       of sealion couch






Re=told Coil

              Deviant splash
, a swoosh       /            handsome
                         pLot       to     ridicule
fistfuls of pampered
                           pollutants   .   Break
> faster still <  , ,  sentence
                       withers
                                 layer UPON layer , , , ,
        BOZO : : : : :
‘hereafter floating less an empire
             strutting chaotic weeping’

. May
     , spring autumnal clocks. Softly
                  spoiling evidence
                  nearest drowning
                  suits drifting, ,
                                       re=stated , ,
pulsation Beaver cloud watches
making business strangulations

                          Known   ,   reverted   ,
               choosing         cluster          ,  ,
revoked Nail file drop ceiling
                               blush,
                                      ing. Sightless
            beholden post-capsized
                       cupboard.




Lacked a Heaving Nostril Fan Blade Widening 

morning trail quiver
            & WINK
     fashion           bug        released
the                           handy           screeching
        puzzle boxes
   without                     bodily                 igloo
formation      greed 
                            simplified    chest    to    drench
         ratio of looping
                                channel            surfing
dunce                              nightingale 
               apt purple                                 cubed
     lobster                  pupil
                                             sickening
trench            watch                         reeling
                                     daughter
             destiny                         ladder            grin
slope
                bot          popping              seconds
       beyond      rocking
                                              prep                      school
                    martyrdom
                                                      pipe




Joshua Martin is a Philadelphia based writer and filmmaker, who currently works in a library. He is member of C22, an experimental writing collective. He is the author most recently of the books Prismatic Fissures (C22 Press), peeping sardine fumes (RANGER Press) and [Ruptured] >> Schematic <<  MAZES (Sweat Drenched Press). He has had numerous pieces published in various journals. You can find links to his published work at joshuamartinwriting.blogspot.com

Those Long Odds



As soon as someone

Moves out of

The marital home,

Those long odds

Get a lot longer.




Taylor Dibbert is a writer, journalist, and poet in Washington, DC. “In the Arena,” his third full-length poetry collection, is due out in April.

STILL STRANGERS:

     EROS

IN EROSION



After years

     of wear, she would sew

with those sharp dead

                           beads, new thoughts

           into the threadbare pattern of memory,

and he solder

       his older, darker, thoughts into place….






… Long ago…





they learned to slaughter

        their eager laughter and tear

                         their deepest tears out of each’s other,

they taught themselves to utilize their exquisite words

                      like hamhamhammers and broadswords--

then, their mutual wounds

                     they wound all about their lives like poison ivy.

(Each just one more bothersome

              clone to the other…)



But



There had been a time



, once,



before the tiny

            mutiny,

when they were still strangers

                                 to anger,

when they could lie naked,

                          sun-baked upon the jurassic sands

or beside the slow hearth,

                            unearthing new treasures from their together,

when, in some safe

                        cafe, their yes

                                      -eyes could swallow entire

their sweet menus

               of Venus

and for many an hour

                           pour their love

from lip to mouth like milk from a pitcher to a glass.





But that time passed…





Strangely

     angel-like, two

 naif

waifs

blown

 down,

unable to unwind all the ivy accumulation

 in a rugged wind – they just

     shrugged, unable to face down

     the demons of their facetious selves.



             (This is not simply

                             to imply that they weren’t determined.

But, over time, stubborn assiduity becomes undermined,

especially when connubial cement lacks

                                 reinforcement.

So, by fragile grapevines, over

                tangled ravines,

the values they were hanging onto

                        kept changing.

They were unable to forge a structure anew

                         or to forget old collapse.

 Neither the heights of their dear science nor

             the weight of alerted conscience,

and not Keats, and certainly

       not Yeats,

     could keep the crevices in their isolate selves

from inventing the devices of their together’s undoing.)







                              Beached,

they discovered the sea:

     inequal parts nausea and mystery.



MAGNIFYING GLASS



You are that lens

that focuses that passion

that assembles

that clearing conflagration.



Borders are kept

by habit, time, or treaty.

When virgin lands

are opened to new seeding

planters supplant

foragers, and old hunters

confront lightnings

to experience thunder.



Our species needs union for generation

but it splits to get searchlight approbation.



HER NAME IS JENNY AND MANY A MORN HAS SEEN HER FACE



:daybreaks are harlots all scarlet and huge with rouge and paste.

:some skies all rosy with hosiery (her limbs so prim, so chaste).

:some days hemorrhage like courage at our battleplace.

:other sunrises are sizes too large – whole yards of lace:

silk towns are pretty but cities of silk go wilt and waste.

(So like my Jenny: her any is much; her touch, embrace.)

(There is no middle. A little with her will work long ways.

:brown coffee mornings come pouring right up from cup to taste.

:all these sunrisings (dawn-icings) – like thieves, they leave no trace.

(So unlike Jenny:

so many a morn has worn her face, so many evenings.

Her leaving goes dim with flimsy haste.)



MONUMENT/MYTH



1. LA FONTAINE MÉDICIS, JARDIN DU LUXEMBOURG



You stroke the stonework

when you come upon the cyclops

and, so, I fountain.



2. ACIS



The bent bronze was crouched.

Your love urged blood into water

and so I fountained.



LOVERS PREFER ROMANCE BECAUSE



poets seek to explore “la mer’

while disregarding the isthmus

and when ‘st-stanzas st-stutter

they p-pretend ma-melisma.

Knowledge is the fundamental basis for the value and development of humanity. It provides the opportunity to expand one’s understanding of the world through acquiring new information, sharing knowledge, and connecting various fields of study.

Knowledge ensures the personal development of every individual throughout their life journey. People enhance their personal growth by understanding themselves and the world, thereby advancing their social and humanitarian activities. This extends from simple life concepts to addressing complex challenges in different domains.

Knowledge encompasses a wide range of fields, from the realms of spirituality and literature to medicine and engineering. It influences all aspects of humanity, impacting various dimensions and introducing new perspectives.

In the development of nations, knowledge plays a crucial role. The exchange of scientific ideas and fostering international cooperation creates substantial opportunities to strengthen interpersonal relationships.

Moreover, the efficacy of knowledge is evident in the advancement of technology, the progress of medical sciences, and the improvement of living standards. This significantly contributes to enhancing the quality of life and providing opportunities for global progress.

Educational initiatives and efforts to acquire knowledge empower individuals with new information, theories, and insights. Thus, the role of knowledge is pivotal in the personal, social, and economic development of individuals, playing a substantial role in shaping a brighter future for humanity.

QURBONOVA GULSANAM

+


The man who tries
  fights his own expectations 

LOVE has this 

   The bird who flutters 
 first born of its nesting days 
has wings in anticipation 

Our Love sings
from parents warmth 
Tune these expectations 

  LOVE has this 

Fallen, born to fly 
 Own the comfort 
  A dawn has no limits 
  LOVE
 A fallen catches life's birth 
                A time to sing
LOVE has this 
    ♡

                                                  ............


by  John Edward Culp 
     Friday morning 
    February 16, 2024

Inscribed In Siltstone

Ancient the relics of thy chthonic passion
Primeval is the amygdala-saurus
Of thy unperturbèd ur-intelligence
Pristine your solicitous quickest instinct

A splendid bolus hardcoded through eons
In the original processing system
Stupendous corpus in tenebrous locus
Coffer’d miscellaneous minutalia

Neither impermanence nor transience affect
Thy everlasting sentience macadamized
Unalterable in unmoving hardness

Took up thy abode in the first guts to stay
Record uncorrupted of feral forebears
Always safe from annihilation to come




Maurizio Brancaleoni is a writer and translator. His poems/haiku/short stories/pastiches have appeared in several journals and anthologies. He has a bilingual blog where he posts literary gems, interviews and translations. ‘Inscribed In Siltstone’ is a meditation in sonnet form about fossils and their obscure antiquity.