Falling
Down into dusty subterraneous
passages where trains race.
Silver rods sped through dream
stations transforming tunnels
with bolts of blue white sparks.
On a steel car looking out the
window. Careening in pitch black.
On edge, through trees into lights,
crashing fast against buildings.
Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary magazines worldwide. She has four Best of the Net nominations and her latest titles are The Muse in Miniature, Love Poems for Michael, and At Work, all available on Amazon.com
4:33 A.M. MEMORIES, 1968
After Neil Diamond’s “Brooklyn Roads”
plays on WCFL, I hear that MLK
was assassinated. 5 years ago
it was JFK. Death
writes party invitations for
every house. We try closing
the door, but It sticks. I’d love
to touch people, but we’re all
on fire. Days leap off
the smoking calendar.
Kenneth Pobo (he/him) is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections. Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), and Lilac And Sawdust (Meadowlark Press). His work has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Asheville Literary Review, Nimrod, Washington Square Review, Mudfish, Hawaii Review, and elsewhere.
round cracker sparrows
on the front porch
we read poems to each other,
alternating turns while naming
every grackle “henry.”
the rain comes and goes,
like some magical waterfall
with a malfunctioning
on/off switch that never
worked right, like some
invisible god was paying
attention to our inner
most thoughts.
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Tohm Bakelas is a social worker in a psychiatric hospital. He was born in New Jersey, resides there, and will die there. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, zines, and online publications. He has published 18 chapbooks and 2 collections. He runs Between Shadows Press.