in a silhouette of time as of a nation. glooms and leadership attrition breezes in, chiming. entertainment easily jogged to. a nation trudging into the abyss of gloom, youths celebrate idiocy in pictures. none penitent parliamentarian echoes stateless as a polity after many thousands of births. crimes easier than crowns, thugs, thrones traditions mired. norms, ethics; reverse for gains, as crimes are wearing naked eyes.
one street after another they walk unharmed, as we applaud no labour wealth.
John Chinaka Onyeche “Rememberajc” (he/his) is an author of three poetry collections “Echoes Across The Atlantic”, a husband, father and poet from Nigeria. He writes from the city of Port Harcourt Rivers State, Nigeria. He is currently a student of History and Diplomatic Studies at Ignatius Ajuru University Of Education Port Harcourt Rivers State. John Chinaka can be reached through the following means: Rememberajc.wordpress.com Facebook.com/jehovahisgood Twitter.com/apostlejohnchin Apostlejohnchinaka@gmail.comhttps://linktr.ee/Rememberajc
What about the days I don’t wanna be pretty in pink. All dressed up for everyone to see, not my choice, no one can hear my voice. It’s not fair, I can’t bear it anymore. I look at my mother in her gray eyes and give a pleading look.
“I don’t wanna wear pink anymore.” I whisper. “Pinks what you’ve got. Suck it up.” She replies.
I nod and accept my fate, sucking in a deep breath before stepping into the baby pink dress. My brown hair is bouncing as my chubby feet find their way back to the floor. Does everyone have to be forced into a color like this or is it just me? It’s not fair, I don’t want to hear it anymore. I no longer wanna be pretty in pink. My grubby little fingers grab the bottom of my dress and begin to lift it up gently before I get frustrated and tear it off. I hear the tears and so does my mother. We stare at each other and her mouth is wide open.
“What did you do?!” She scolded. “I said I didn’t wanna wear it anymore!” I stated.
Emma Giammanco is a 16-year-old junior at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School. She’s on the school’s literary journal ‘The Siren.’ She’s from Beaver Pennsylvania and in her free time volunteers at Ready Yourself Youth Horse Ranch and the local Center. She loves to write fiction mostly and sometimes poetry.
I’ve been given a new task chosen for my proclivity to cry for no direct reason. couple years ago, except for my mother’s death, i only cried at movies, a couple songs always brought tears
But now i just cry, 3-4 days a week; i hope there’s not something wrong with me that my tears are helping somehow thousands of us, crying without knowing why whether for those who have a reason to cry— poverty, violence, disease–and can’t, or won’t, or for extinct species, melting glaciers, dying reefs and forests
So far i haven’t had to pull over while driving because of tears. many people at the gym. pause between reps, but probably none because they’re crying. we’re all invisible at our machines, working for longer lives without wondering if that’s what we want
Dan Raphael’s new poetry collection, Out in the Wordshed, will be published by Last Word Books in November of ’22. More recent poems appear in Unlikely Stories, Mad Swirl, Pangolin, Otoliths and Synchronized Chaos. Most Wednesdays dan writes and records a current events poem for The KBOO Evening News.
Nolcha has written all her life, starting with poop and crayons on the walls. Her poems have been published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, The Red Lemon Review, Dark Entries, Duck Head Journal and others. Her chapbook, “My Father’s Ghost Hates Cats,” is available on Amazon.
I’m not sure what to do about the hole in the sky heat that sears my skin desert dry when
no rain falls to quench the earth’s thirst and we all still want to be first to own the latest
insert-toy-here made by children over there for two cents an hour and our planet cries,
species die, to stroke mascara on eyes filling screens in the hands of beings consumed by their own desire.
Never mind the lands gone barren, famine hollowing out bodies to bones, bellies that bloat.
Never mind fish that now float in oceans of fire Never mind wondering why.
We know, you and I. We know, you and I.
***
Jayne Martin is the flash fiction editor at The San Franciscan Magazine. Her collection of microfiction, “Tender Cuts,” was published by Vine Leaves Press. Coming in spring of 2022, “The Daddy Chronicles-Memoir of a Fatherless Daughter” from Whiskey Tit Books. She lives in California, but dreams of living in Paris.
Charlie Bowden is a student from Hampshire, England, who discovered a love for writing poetry in lockdown after spending years studying it at school. His poetry has been included in collections by Young Writers, Amnesty International and the Stratford Literary Festival and recently he won the 2021 Forward/emagazine Creative Critics Competition.
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By Frances Huffman
Moon
My first word, my mother says.
I pointed at the big, shining bulb in the sky
and met for the first time a new friend.
The Man in the Moon.
“Goodnight Moon”
was the first book I ever read.
It was my favorite too.
Every night before bed my mother would tell me to rest my head
and say goodnight to the man in the sky.
The moon is so comforting,
a beam of white in the dark of night.
I began to talk to him, The Man in the Moon,
my celestial diary, keeping me awake with his light.
My need for the Man soon ran out,
a total eclipse of my life.
New friends, new people to tell.
I left all of my secrets with them instead.
How lonely he must feel,
without our daily talks.
No one’s secrets to keep.
The loud silence of space, alone, a floating rock.
I hope someone else shares their life with him,
because he is a very good listener,
A wonderful friend when you need one.
The Man In the Moon.
Frances Huffman is a gazebo-loving junior at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School. She enjoys writing poetry and creative nonfiction. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA and loves taking her dog for walks.
Море белое. Мы ничего не видим. Желание не имеет никто. Солнце ходит вниз гора как мяч. Дверь открывается. Входит тень и проходит через комнату перед проходит через стену. Я тебя никогда не знал.
Exile
The sea is white. We don’t see anything. There is no desire. The sun is going down the mountain like a ball. The door opens up. A shadow comes in and walks across the room before going through the wall. I never knew you.
Горизонт в коробке. Рисунок карандашом, не похож на тебя. У тебя рука в кармане. Но это чужая рука. Голос за дверью, это твой. Ничего не имеет смысла. Мозг – странный орган.
A Strange Portrait
The horizon is in a box. A pencil drawing, does not look like you. You have a hand in your pocket. But this is someone else’s hand. The voice outside the door is yours. Nothing makes sense. The brain is a strange organ.
Ivan de Monbrison is a poet, writer and artist living in Paris born in 1969. He has studied oriental languages there after high school, not with great success. Ivan has autistic and schizophrenic tendencies that he has been trying to cop with through art, in the past twenty years of his life. His writing and art reflect maybe also the feeling of the decadence of today’s society, centered on its own vacuity and its lack of real purpose. He has been published in literary magazines globally.
Each twang, a consolation, for the one who got away,
A blind eye, it attempts to throw on his failed cues,
The resolution to his loss.
Rome wasn’t built in a day,
The seeker prayed monotonously into the morning air,
The epic inspiration, a cover,
For the epic failures to match,
Sorrows of the previous days,
The Ends of whose darkness, he had never seen the light.
Have faith in the gods, trust them and they will not fail you,
The pious one sang,
Songs of praise,
To ignore his shame,
Which heavily bothered him to Lamentations,
The cold waters troubling his loins, heated by the burning blood,
Its cruelty aroused by the rising tensions in his heart,
Synonymous with doubt,
For akin his previous experiences were,
To a kid who believed in the total salvation of the human race,
At the hands of some existing superheroes.
Now, broken, yet seeking and pious,
Three heavy weights, a crowd to bear,
Lusting in denial, a desire to push on,
But the heart knows the truth, which the mind can’t be lied to,
That to some clay,
The potter destined to be honoured at The Queen’s Palace,
Loathsomely, to some others,
Dejection was predestined, their final honour,
To be displayed around the city as spoils,
Like the legendary vanquished and prisoners of war,
At Caesar’s Gala,
In limelight of their impending execution,
Thus finding a common ground, lay their greatest achievement,
‘To die is to have lived’.
Victor Ogan is a writer who has strong interests in the fields of Literature and the Arts. He draws inspiration from his internal self-reflection and a careful observation of the world around him.
William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He has taught at several colleges and universities. His most recent book of poetry is Mist in Their Eyes (2021). He has published three critical studies, including Robert Lowell’s Shifting Colors. His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in various journals.
Shambles 