Poetry from J.J. Campbell

White man with a beard and glasses and a beard and a mustache. He's in a room with some music and movie posters on the walls. He has a Black Lives Matter tee shirt with purple text on a black background.
an old friend
 
had an old friend
that swore she
would never talk
to me again email
me this morning
 
wanted to know
if i was still alive
 
i get the feeling
she was hoping
to never get a
response
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a miserable death
 
just woke myself up
with a fart that smelled
like some animal met
a miserable death
 
that's the problem
with going to bed
before the sun
comes up
 
nothing good happens

before fucking noon
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
where the smoke smells like roses
 
i want to live in a world
where david bowie and
tupac are sharing a laugh
over drinks in some neon
laced psychedelic bar
 
still alive
 
making music
 
keeping people questioning
all reality
 
where the smoke smells like
roses and success is the last

thing anyone thinks about
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
an uncertain world
 
uncertain times in
an uncertain world
 
your soft brown skin
always has a way
of calming me down
 
two steps back from
that proverbial ledge
 
destiny is there for
those that need to

believe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
i was never meant to enjoy this
 
i don't complain
about the pain
any longer
 
the pills don't
work
 
and so far,
my liver hasn't
asked or begged
to quit
 
i figure these are
the days where i
am supposed to
learn that i was
never meant to
enjoy this in the
first place
 
and as bitter as
the truth is,
 
it only makes you
strong enough for
the next mountain

of pain

J.J. Campbell (1976 – ?) is currently trapped in the suburbs plotting his escape. He’s been widely published over the years, most recently at Terror House Magazine, The Rye Whiskey Review, Horror Sleaze Trash, The Beatnik Cowboy and Dumpster Fire Press. You can find him each day on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)

Poetry from Nathan Anderson

Tired

    

     Gone
like desolation chambers stalled down Main Street, housed in broken palaces, eaten by wolves. Said to be happier without stone and flame, said to be sleepless over trenches and hand pumped electrical diodes.

Screaming into the void.

She said she would not follow anymore. She said she had been made as constellation. She said she could not stand upon a single foot and would not wear a skull upon her head to seat her holy houses.

How can it be that standing straight and staring into emptiness has become a criminal offence?

How can it be that wishing to be sold as soil is open to the breaking pace of move and move and move!

How can it be that as she speaks she goes on loosing threads throughout her eyes until she simply sits and contemplates, finding enlightenment in figures of silver and gold?

How can we sit on grasses weightlessly and worthlessly, speaking tongues, waiting for projections to arrive in their abundance, screeching and embracing as they come and go at our command?

Wait I cannot see your eyes, I cannot walk this mezzanine and stride too perfectly without these tired lips.

How do you preach and wake so naked in the house of holy blood and money, slaked of thirst and waiting for the broom to help you sweep the floor?

Help me end this endless gloom, help me weep upon this stone, this sand that broke from stone.

      Gone I said.
Gone.

One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars

Bloodshed
against this vast canal
wearing aimlessly the
notion of hereditary opalescence

Martyr    Martyr    Martyr    Martyr

Hear the drip-drip-drip
of iron clad boats
carrying these serfs
addressed to ridiculous
superfluous
whatever
whatever
whatever

Red, yellow, pink, green. Red, yellow, pink, green. Red, yellow, pink, green. Red, yellow, pink, green. Red, yellow, pink, green. Red, yellow, pink, green. Red yellow pink green. Redyellowpinkgreen. Redyellowpinkgreenredyellowpinkgreenredyellowpinkgreenredyellowpinkgreenredyellowpinkgreenrypgrypgrypgrypgrypgrypgrypgrypgrypgrlpgrlpgrl………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Martyr   Martyr    Martyr    Martyr

Manufacture both 3 and 6

Take electrode and hide beneath
systemic happenstance
probing find
triangulation through
lips
lips
lips

Take car battery and sit within
consultation reply
injecting fluid
locate triangulation
here
here
here

Take speed velocity and live without
pliable elbow
sitting malformed
love triangulation
now
now
now

A Jaw Complete

Slack rope and add to evolution
slip and fall
as metallurgy
leads the acid break

                                    Stymied without skin
                                    rocking on the bell
                                    as shore
                                    and shoreline
                                    please the carnivore

Lamp shine and water slip
sanded on the edge
positive
against
negative
against
positive
against
negative

                      Repeat Ad infinitum 

Sadhu Dreams

Are you waking
tired Sadhu
have you seen the emblems
falling from their perches
take your ribbon
hang it from the
bent spoke

Are you silent
waking Sadhu
have you touched regression
and its parted lips
place the emblem
by the river
dancing
as a bird

Bio: Nathan Anderson is a writer from Mongarlowe, Australia. He is the author of the poetry book Deconstruction of a Symptom (Alien Buddha Press) and has had work appear in Otoliths, Gone Lawn and elsewhere. You can find him at nathanandersonwriting.home.blog or on Twitter @NJApoetry. 

Poetry from Dan Flore

I can’t hear you, Tracy

I can’t hear you, Tracy, the sun is in my eyes like a strange portrait of light, and I’m stuck in a seashell, drowning in the sound of the ocean. I am staggering like I’m drunk. Slurring my words. Having a seizure over and over again and I just wanted to smile for you and talk about that day at Peace Valley Park when your clothes were plain and everything was going right. When the sun was my ally and everything was green, even the dirt. This strange sphere of a planet dropped me off on the side of the road when I wasn’t looking. I’m at the graveyard now. My tombstone reads rest in pieces. I can’t hear you, Tracy. I can’t even hear myself. Tip toeing into traffic. Knees all crumpled up. How many shades of blue can one man radiate? The clock ticks like Chinese water torture over me and I wish I knew what you were saying, with your hands in your pockets, walking along the grass somewhere.

Poetry from John Robbins

Cocktails Served

Some find their way in to escape.

Others find solace in empty conversations and stale beers.

Most all of them have a reason and the best never needed one at all.

For me it’s a feel more than anything.

It is in the night itself.

For I am forever chasing what I can never regain.

A shared bit of mystery.

A simple release and nothing more.

A dark corner and a good laugh.

We gave up toys for vices and never truly grew up at all.

Maybe there is hope for tonight to be different from all the rest.

But at least the drinks are cold.

As the people that serve them.

Tip to all.

Don’t go blind looking into computer screens.

For purpose when a night’s escape is far more enticing.

I may go home alone.

But at least I gained a peace of mind, chasing something more than cyber bullshit and empty hours.

The dog walks itself and I never was intended for the leash.

The drinks are my escape because they fill a void, another never will.

They may come at a hell of a price.

News flash so do lawyers and divorces.

Keep that sunny side shit to yourself.

Nurse, refill please.

Poetry from Stephanie Johnson

Istanbul Expat Women

Hold a match up to a thread from your carpet, does it smell like burnt hair?

The days when I lived in Turkey seem tinged with sepia now

We remember the same stories with different friends in the leading roles.

Expats being bad in the heat of summer.

Daytime “ladies’ lunches” behind closed curtains

bottles of Georgian wine, hidden in cloth shopping bags

Neatly wrapped to hide the clinking

To protect us from the dedekodu

Inside the cement walls, behind closed curtains

We drank, laughed, cried, told the same stories

With our own voices

Our magic carpet rides didn’t always end well

But at our ladies’ lunches we gave each other tips

About how to fall off gracefully

And how to tell if your carpet was silk or synthetic

Windows closed, aircon on, we hid our voices from the neighbors

Until the stroke of five, when we had to start collecting empty plates,

Water glasses stained with burgundy,

Pack up our imported Tupperware and go back to our husbands,

Head to our shift at the language school,

Mask back in place, magic carpet fired up,

Always silk or wool, never polyester.

Have to keep up appearances.

Here, take a piece of gum before you go, you don’t want to stink

Of alcohol on the bus or in the taksi.

Now, years later, I can only look back at the photos

And wonder how you all are…

Stephanie Johnson’s poetry has appeared in numerous publications including Witty Partition, Sink Hollow, Forum Literary Magazine, and others. She is an Associate Editor at Novel Slices, a new literary magazine based solely on novel excerpts, and has spent most of her adult life overseas teaching English literature, ESL and Spanish. Her writing usually focuses on the slightly uncomfortable space of the expatriation/ repatriation experience. She is currently based in San Francisco. Find her on Instagram at @stephaniejohnsonpoetry and Twitter at @stephan64833622 

Poetry from Dave Douglas

Division Street

This poem is for Autism Awareness month, which is in April each year.

Link to the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network with more information.

Division Street

A street divides her thoughts from her lips,

I see my reflection in the puddle of her eyes;

Still innocent to the decorated world around her,

Averting the sunshine of the faces in her skies.

Her smile shines on her colorful creations,

Her imagination holds the key to wonderland,

She cradles the many characters with care —

So please, imagine holding me in your hand.

Hush my sweet baby, I’ll sing you a lullaby,

Dream, I dream of the day we sing your song;

Hush my sweet baby, I’ll sing you a lullaby,

Dream, dream of the day we sing your song.

Her sweet, sweet hum echoes into my heart

As exploration takes her from dolls to doors,

From goldfish to gates, from swings to the stars,

Taking big, big steps gazing up from the floor.

The street which divides narrows each day

As moments of connection draw us closer,

And the song of our voices begin to harmonize,

So one day, we will cross that street together!