Virginia Petrucci

Soul Braid

Florescent echo
Our birthright, pink infinite
Save it for the grave

Richard Dinges Jr.

With Television Still On


Television blares and casts
gray shadows over fetal
forms wrapped in rumpled
sweaters, side-by-side
twin beds in this
eternal twilight, breaking
all rules, wearing shoes
on sheets, little separation
from the dearly departed,
just a matter of flipping
them on their backs,
straightening their legs,
folding hands on chests,
and turning off the TV.

John Yohe

Unless love

We could pretend
love exists
and that we are in love
and do the things
those who are in love
do

like feed each other spoonfuls of ice cream
take walks on rainy park trails
say we missed each other
when we were apart
and kiss and touch
and fuck

but we would never say making love
because what we do then
is too violent
and selfish
to be love

unless
love
is like that

unless love
is violent and selfish
and frightening like that

Mark Danowsky

The Hard-Boiled Egg Incident
Standing on my tiptoes
on a wicker chair
with a whole hard-boiled egg stuffed
in one cheek
searching the medicine cabinet
over the drying rack
(where they kept the candy)
when our tabby cat flies by so
the chair wobbles
& there’s a sound that makes me think
of the owl in that Tootsie Pop commercial
(after the owl says three)
when I hit the kitchen floor
when the egg pops out my mouth
crimson rings trail
as it rolls along the linoleum