(These are excerpts — click on the titles to view the complete poems)

 

Special Feature — Word Poems
Poems containing the words amethyst, sailboat, transparent, and premonition.

 

Two Poems
 
It was ambiguous, the way
they left it at the end of that book—you felt
like crying though it wasn't clear exactly
what happened.  
 
Paul Hostovsky

 

May 19
 
an image of a human wearing the head of a beast,
or, deeper in their idea,
of an animality retained in man  
 
Oliver Rice

 

Accidental Oracles
 
The world isn't the sum
Of what we transcribe of it.  
 
Daniel Barbiero

 

Still Life with Mellifluous Strings
 
Behind black branches,
the moon rolls over, soaking up dreams like a sponge.  
 
Michaela A. Gabriel and Nathan McClain

 

All Saints Day, Miami
 
That night, I stirred from sleep when a troll,
hunchbacked, crept through my apartment.  
 
Les Kay

 

December 18
 
The legs of token livestock—a sheep and a cow—point
different directions. Their apathetic eyes view the wreckage
without blinking and know all are bred for slaughter.  
 
Scott Urban

 

Aftermath
 
You're in the dark.
Like a Chekov play after the last living actor fries
the audience with a stun gun. Sarcophagal.  
 
Arlene Ang

 

Two Poems
 
I learned to say confession before
I knew the word named guilt.  
 
Teresa White

 

The girl on the train
 
Before, when the girl had gone to pee,
her mother had confided that her daughter is a swimmer
and on her way to meet her boyfriend from Slovenia.
She (the mother) is banking on a break-up.  
 
Kimberly L. Becker

 

The Evening Before
 
Her silence makes me feel
like I'm being punished.  
 
Jason Kelly Richards

 

Outside Disney World
 
the sun was so hot it burned
even after it had gone
halfway into tomorrow  
 
Lafayette Wattles