A Star is Born
by LaMar Giles

We surf on social media waves,
exploring time lines
where stars are born
to be superficial
for digital eyes
to quantify perfection.

We exist. They live.
They raise our interest.
We pay attention,
year after year,
following these stars,
until we become indebted souls,
lost on the dark side of the fence.

 

 

Strength
both poetry and art by Sarah Sousa

 

 

NEW YEAR’S DAY STILL LIFE
by Liza Hudock

The dinner table in white brushstrokes.
Our current situation suspended on a rumpled tablecloth.
And who’s idea was that?
The blackberry floating in an inch of stale beer, bronze bubbles clinging to its skin.
A Tarot card peeks out from under a dish of leftover rib roast.
My fortune was that I still seek it.
A frosty windowpane to loose me from this cleaving headache.
Flat patches of grass petrified green by an early freeze, caught in an earlier spring.
I traced petals around this darkening point while the weather made up its mind.
Came home and a year passed, like thousands, like hail on the wind.

*The italicized portion at the end of the poem is quoted from “Eastern Slope,” by Su Tung-Po in 1081.

 

 

The Archive
by Sophie Panzer, image supplied by author

Journeys from here are easy. I skin knees in Hungarian flower fields, cut toes in the salt pools of Lokrum, burn shoulders in line for the London Eye. In Berlin the air is alive with wasps to whom everything is plum jam. I escape to neat-haired lesbians who bring me tea and Weimar era magazines, let me brush my fingers over black and white lips. It’s not porn if the breast is history. When did they know? I ask my hosts. They shrug in crisp English. Does anyone know when their world is ending?

 

–

 

LaMar was born and raised in New Jersey and holds a BA in English from Rutgers University. Although he’s a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association, LaMar is focused on releasing his first book of poetry in the near future. You can find LaMar on Twitter: @LaMar_Giles

Sarah Sousa is the author of three poetry collections, most recently See the Wolf, which was named a ‘Must Read’ Book in the Massachusetts Book Awards, and the chapbook Yell. Her chapbook Hex is forthcoming.

Liza Hudock is a poet living in Detroit, Michigan

Sophie Panzer is the author of three chapbooks and has edited prose for Inklette. Her recent work had appeared in Coffin Bell Journal, The Hellebore, and Sad Girl Review. She lives in Philadelphia.