Brihintha Burggee - 1 Poem

Bereft

Your love makes me cry.

The love with which you never loved me.

Your love songs torment my nights.

Songs you never sung. Only hummed.

Your touch burns in me, the gentle

touch that slaps me each drunken night.

A bitter sunrise for every honeymoon,

a pinch of salt in every sweetness.

You make me dance to the tunes of a nymph

on the broken nails of my coffin.

Remember how you adorned me

so childishly?

Like a newly wedded bride,

with wine dripping on my forehead

and the white shroud glittering

around my neck.

The shattering glass was writing

the melody of this beautiful threnody.

And the silver anklets with which

you’d bind me before the start

of the charade?

Your unusual force kissed my ankles,

scarring them.

I am but your showpiece.

As the beads scattered on the floor,

each heartbeat was un-writing your name.

Wishing now that it could have

un-loved what seemed to be so perfect

O strayed Soulmate of mine.

BIOGRAPHY: Born in 1994, Brihintha Burggee is enjoying the experience of writing her first poems. A student of the Loreto College, she lives in the busy town of Quatre-Bornes, in Mauritius.

John Swain - 1 Poem

A Fire Wheel

The mountain held
a basking serpent
like a fire wheel,
I placed a coin
on its rough tongue.
The nights gained
a poison momentum
from the shift
in visions relating.
And when I sat bewildered
in the last shatter
overwhelmed
by the divinity of my enemy,
I drank wine
from the sieve
of his bitter open arms.
Then we became kin
to curse and sadden
her third person,
the methods unlearnt
to read omens,
so I could find worth
and we could go on.

Biography: John Swain lives in Louisville, Kentucky. Crisis Chronicles Press published his most recent chapbook, White Vases.

Gary Beck - 2 Poems

Extensions

Ghostly images
the unknown future
blur horizons,
smile endless vistas,
cloud preconceptions,
identity conclusions,
temporal stases,
hunger resolution,
finite boundaries.

End of Season

The last leaf
flutters, falls
as we huddle
in protective domes,
artificial bubbles
sheltering us
from extravagant destruction
by careless custodians.

BIOGRAPHY: Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director. A collection of his poetry 'Days of Destruction' was published by Skive Press. Another collection 'Expectations' was published by Rogue Scholars Press and 'Dawn in Cities' and 'Assault on Nature' are being published by Winter Goose Press. His novel 'Acts of Defiance' is being published by Trestle Press and 'Extreme Change' is being published by Cogwheel Press. His poetry has appeared in hundreds of literary magazines. He currently lives in New York City.

Donal Mahoney - 1 Poem

Pretty Girl Now Passing

Look so pretty you
no sound floats
out of my mouth

as I sit silent now
staring through you
boring in

wondering
what it is that
does this

to me now
and every time
I see you still

just out walking
talking
laughing with him

BIOGRAPHY: Donal Mahoney has had work published in The Rainbow Rose and various print and electronic publications in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. 

Neil Ellman - 3 Poems

The Power of Thought 
(after the painting by Michael Kvium)

It comes
goes
whack-a-mole
whimsy
of thought
frightful images of
dragons
under the bed
then
princes and princesses
all dressed up
popping up
the power of dreams
memories piled
like
broken dolls
forgotten
remembered
with different eyes
the power of thinking
what might have been
or could.


Manao Tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Keep Watch)
(after the painting by Paul Gauguin)

               I

She watches me
listens
for signs
the slightest movement
of an eye
the smallest murmuration
of my heart
she waits
counts beats
studies the curve
of my back
the arch of my neck
while I tighten my hold
on straw.


             II

She waits for me
I for her to leave
she waits
with the patience
of a monstrous saint
while I hold fast      
grip burning
sheets of light.


           III

They carriy me
to the pyre
where I can feel
my soul on fire—
even then
she waits.

Insula Dulcamara
(after the painting by Paul Klee)

Framed by time
a nursery rhyme
of dancing lines
the harmony
of children’s play
their nascent thoughts
of candy ghosts
and singing snakes--
such innocence
in dreams.

Biography:  Neil Ellman lives and writes in New Jersey.  Hundreds of his poems appear in print and online journals throughout the world, from Australia to Mauritius to Zimbabwe.  He has also published nine chapbooks, the most recent of which, Double-Takes, is available as a free PDF download from fowlpox.tk.

Samantha Seto - 1 Poem

Witchcraft

Dust crowds the attic,
ancient photographs in paper boxes,
faint reflection in broken glass mirror.

Bury me under your deepest memory.
We engrave black crosses on our foreheads,
smell of blood clothes, sing dark prayer,
wear black nail polish, cover scars.

Walls encode invisible letters and numbers,
I brush my red hair wisps away, smearing ink.
Flame circles the ground, time warps in darkness,
paper released falls like snow around me.

If I go on, unforgivable curses remain on earth.
Hysteria crumbles to the ground, mirror of screams.
Dreams of prophetic times, cured only with supernatural.

BIOGRAPHY: Samantha Seto has been published in various anthologies including Ceremony, Soul Fountain, Carcinogenic Poetry, and Black Magnolias Journal. She is a third prize poetry winner of the Whispering Prairie Press contest.