Patchwork
by Jeff Burt
I like to feel my body sore after a day of work outside,
expended and smelling of soap but underneath
the scent of flesh used and singed by sunshine.
It is not a weary evenness that swimming can produce,
when every muscle seems communally worn.
It’s irregular, as if a patchwork of ache
in one knee then good fabric through the hip
before the side twinges as if suddenly too short
to reach my ribs as I roll into bed,
as if the thread now taut has begun to tear.
I lie in the dark and the fragrance of mown grass floods,
then the flowering lime and lemon
carried by the evening moisture through the window
seems to play a game of hide and seek
with my nose, first there,
then not, then there, then not.
I think of the story of Mary, the perfume,
her hair the washcloth for his worn feet.
her lightheadedness from the close proximity
to the ester, the aroma, the blossom.
I breathe, empty, bodiless.
Instead of closing, darkness opens.
Bio: Jeff Burt lives in Santa Cruz County, California, with his wife. He has worked in electronics and mental health administration, and has contributed to Gold Man Review, Williwaw Journal, Red Wolf Journal, Rabid Oak, and many others. He won the 2017 Cold Mountain Poetry Prize.
The Second Second
by Dominik Slusarcyzk
We have one chance to laugh and
One chance to cry.
We have one chance to
Worm our way into
Boardrooms and bedrooms.
We have one chance to
Sing the song the
Sparrows sing all summer.
This is our only chance to
Mark the world
As our own,
Our only chance
To buy a home, lose
A home, prove
That we have grown.
Bio: Dominik Slusarczyk is an artist who makes everything from music to painting. He was educated at The University of Nottingham where he got a degree in biochemistry. He lives in Bristol, England. His poetry has been published in ‘Dream Noir’, ‘Home Planet News’, and ‘Scars Publications’.
I Really Wish The Preacher Had To Pee
by Dan Flore lll
I really wish
this preacher
on TV
would have to pee
he’s going on about
how if you send in money
God will triple it
he makes Jesus
sound like a financial investment
I really wish
he was jumping up and down
trying to hold it in
it would be the only
real thing he’d be doing
Bio- Dan Flore III’s poems have appeared in many publications. His 6 poetry books are Lapping Water, Humbled Wise Men Christmas Haikus, Home and other places I’ve yet to see, Pink Marigold Rays,(Gen Z Publishing) Written in the dust on the ceiling fan, (Dead Man’s Press Ink.) and Hospital Issued Writing Notebook.(Querencia Press)
