Special FeaturerbdJordan Anthony Elijah Barnes, special feature, poetry

Jordan Anthony Elijah Barnes: Man-Made Rivers

Special FeaturerbdJordan Anthony Elijah Barnes, special feature, poetry
Jordan Anthony Elijah Barnes: Man-Made Rivers
Joshua Newton

Joshua Newton

Vigilante

 

I.
my knuckles deserve their scars
glass shards, broken skin
too many times

half my bones creak in agony
begging me to stay
still

the other half
screams for entropy
screams for hollow chaos,
destruction -

we reek of youthful exuberance
paused adolescence
resumed with aplomb

i'm starting to agree
there is such a thing as
too late
 

too late for genius resurrections,
ill-timed revelations under the haunting glow of the moon
stars glistening with disdain

lips golden under the light of her eyes

too late for dreams of her womb,
the heavenly nest buried deep in her soul
harboring life
my sun

II.
i write poems about her in blood
blood isn't always pretty
but blood
is blood

red, metallic, mercurial
blood
siphoned from my soul

stinking of sulfur
and maybe murr

I always thought my bones were made of brimstone
forged in the river styx
smoky with a potpourri of sin

is that how my love tasted to her?

III.
asking "who left you?"
is telling me to vomit blood on your doorstep:
i'll do it, but
what's the price for my willingness?

the windows, shattered
floor boards torn into scrap
destruction is edification only if you believe
that you could be worth despair

that happiness is an ultimate gift,
glowing in a tiny cupboard hidden within the labyrinth of Momma's lessons;

the streaks on your wrists are a map to Nirvana:
cold reminders, tree-rings, criss crossing your veins
like man-made rivers

Jordan Anthony Elijah Barnes is based out of Quincy, MA. He makes a habit of writing, rapping, singing, and telling jokes. His favorite color is Black and the only thing he loves more than experiencing dope things is making them happen himself. You can follow him on Twitter @yungsamson_

Special FeaturerbdSammie Downing, special feature, poetry

Sammie Downing: Am I a River Or a Woman

The poet Ed Roberson told Sammie Downing, “You only have one life and you only have one work.” Advice she's taken to heart–she's filed taxes in 7 U.S. States and now finds herself working on a cattle and deer station in the depths of New Zealand. Find her fiction at Entropy Mag, my poetry at 3am Magazine and my blog at: www.herearelions.org. 

Special FeaturerbdSammie Downing, special feature, poetry
Sammie Downing: Am I a River Or a Woman
Special FeaturerbdDavid Boeving, special feature, poetry

David Boeving: A Crucifix Machine

David Boeving teaches rhetoric and writing at Eastern Michigan University and poetry and fiction at the Huron Valley Women’s Correctional Facility. David has published poems in Body Electric (Ann Arbor) and “‘News’ ‘Conference’ or Play Your T. Card” through Frog Island Press, and poems and photographs in NEAT, and Tongue Mag. He lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan with his loving partner and their two cats.

Special FeaturerbdDavid Boeving, special feature, poetry
David Boeving: A Crucifix Machine
Special FeaturerbdAshley Mares, special feature, poetry

Ashley Mares: Unclean Hands

Ashley Mares is the author of Maddening Creatures (Aldrich Press, forthcoming), The Deer Longs for Streams of Water (Flutter Press) A Dark, Breathing Heart (dancing girl press), and Killer (Ghost City Press, forthcoming). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Stirring, Whiskey Island, Sugar House Review, Glass Poetry Press, Prelude, PANK, and others. She is currently completing her J.D. in Monterey, Ca, where she lives with her husband. Read more of her poetry at ashleymarespoetry.wordpress.com and follow her @ash_mares2. 

Special FeaturerbdAshley Mares, special feature, poetry
Ashley Mares: Unclean Hands
Special FeaturerbdPhilip Schaefer, special feature, poetry

Philip Schaefer: Everyone Else’s Darkness

Philip Schaefer’s first collection of poems Bad Summon won the Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize from the University of Utah Press and will be released Summer 2017. He is the author of three chapbooks, two of which were co-written with friend and poet Jeff Whitney. He won the 2016 Meridian Editor’s Prize in poetry and has work out or due out in Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Thrush Poetry Journal, Guernica, The Cincinnati Review, Salt Hill, Bat City Review, The Adroit Journal, Baltimore Review, and Passages North among others. He tends bar in Missoula, MT.

Special FeaturerbdPhilip Schaefer, special feature, poetry
Philip Schaefer: Everyone Else’s Darkness