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Faith Is An Egg With A Thin Shell – Susanna Crossman

Faith Is An Egg With A Thin Shell

Faith is a word I hold in my hand, safe in my palm, enclosed by the nest of my upturned fingers. Take faith to the lips: said, spoken, delivered, a birth of song spills from a secret mouth. If you speak faith, the five letters advance with an F, stridently like a French ‘fanfare’, a lawless, troubadour’s marching band. Then the word melts in the wind of aaaith, an elongated, rushing sound. Faith closes with the delicateness of th. Place the tongue, feather-light, by the teeth. Faith, faith, faith.

Rilke said, “Have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you Continue reading “Faith Is An Egg With A Thin Shell – Susanna Crossman” →

Homoerratica 3 (Apologetics) – Joshua Palmer

Homoerratica (Apologetics)

screen shot 2019-01-30 at 20.04.39screen shot 2019-01-30 at 20.05.04

 

 

 

bhp author photoJoshua Palmer is an artist and writer pursuing an MFA at the University of Pittsburgh, but he is from Texas the way windmills, dirt, and Dairy Queens are from Texas. He is currently doing research for a manuscript about a gay bathhouse fire. His poetry has appeared in SPF LIT MAG, Spectrum Culture, and Popula (forthcoming). You can follow him on twitter @gummybrzpalmer.

Featured photo credit: Amanda Ollinik  @Allunderonemoon

1. Mark Making 2. Mistaking the Parts for the Whole 3. Point of View – Elisa Taber

Mark Making

Tape tacked on a lamp
Post. “I” spray-painted
On someone’s lawn.
A raised book casting
A shadow on the pulpit.

Missing: child
Perplexed by flyer, home-
Owner, priest. Continue reading “1. Mark Making 2. Mistaking the Parts for the Whole 3. Point of View – Elisa Taber” →

1. Lucidity At The Edge Of The Abyss 2. Afterlife Of Battered – Bobbi Lurie

Lucidity At The Edge Of The Abyss

his father brought him to me in his arms and i said
“forget those doctors my friend take this clay in your hand and your hand
will move again”
and it did (his hand did move again) (doctors said there was no chance) (what force gave me the nerve to say)(same force that gives me this day cancer leaping through this body as it is all laws pale to insignificance)
death is my friend take me any time says i Continue reading “1. Lucidity At The Edge Of The Abyss 2. Afterlife Of Battered – Bobbi Lurie” →

1. Preachers On The Street, and 2. Burning In Crowded Places – DS Maolalai

Preachers On The Street

the thing is
at least
they have guts enough
to believe in something.
it takes
courage
to go that far;
standing on a streetcorner
screaming at strangers. Continue reading “1. Preachers On The Street, and 2. Burning In Crowded Places – DS Maolalai” →

Music Number Four: Talus Deposits – Robert Frederic Kenter

Music Number Four: Talus Deposits

1.
When grandmother died, mother turned off the lights. From a high rise I see across harbours. Veins on your nose. A snapped rose.
This is a scree.

 

2.
The roads are filled with transistor radios. Playing Springsteen songs. Here comes the night: American neo-troubadour melodies.

 

3.
the funeral, of course, took place after Friday night Sabbath. Continue reading “Music Number Four: Talus Deposits – Robert Frederic Kenter” →

The 5th C – ReVerse Butcher and Kylie Supski

The 5th C

 

 

 

Continue reading “The 5th C – ReVerse Butcher and Kylie Supski” →

1. Testimonies 2. When the Rainbow Falls from the Sky 3. How Things Look Back – Ifeoluwa Ayandele

Testimonies

I am a stranger in this place
& grief’s white teeth leave
its bite marks on my skin:

the relic of a child left in the
cold hand of an estranged city,
alone. I am a stranger in this city

& family dinner table is a strange Continue reading “1. Testimonies 2. When the Rainbow Falls from the Sky 3. How Things Look Back – Ifeoluwa Ayandele” →

When the Show Must Go On – Trina Young

When the Show Must Go On

my magic sparks
but doesn’t light

it is not so
effervescent

your smile spreads
pretty, mine splits

a parlor trick
halving myself

you pull a dove Continue reading “When the Show Must Go On – Trina Young” →

‘Daughter-Seed’ by Arielle Tipa – reviewed by Miggy Angel

i am full of children i do not want

If every girl/daughter is a seed, what will that seed become? What plume, bloom, or vegetation?

muck-in-my-gut // ghost-white and beloved // give me a disregard for neighbors and sirens

Maybe it’s true, that “the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree.” That the seed of her being is a blue-bell blueprint, genesis of genes, traumatic histories and memories mapping destinies predestined, societal soldering of gender-norms, which she inherits. Continue reading “‘Daughter-Seed’ by Arielle Tipa – reviewed by Miggy Angel” →

1. The Easter Sunday my Faith Strayed, and 2. Lost and Found Still Lost – Carrie Danaher Hoyt

The Easter Sunday My Faith Strayed

A thurible swung solemnly
voices sang for risen King
and sweet incense was billowing.

Prayers of the Faithful asked
help for Syria,
comfort for their suffering.

As I spoke, “Lord, hear our prayer,”
the holy smoke
grew strangling. Continue reading “1. The Easter Sunday my Faith Strayed, and 2. Lost and Found Still Lost – Carrie Danaher Hoyt” →

1. Vigil, and 2. Clear – Jon Bishop

Vigil

It’s blue-dark,
the kind of dark that comes only
in the midst of a full moon,

and the night is cool, and calm,
and the wind, lightly dancing
through the trees, is beginning
to whisper in our ears, calling us Continue reading “1. Vigil, and 2. Clear – Jon Bishop” →

1. The natural beauty of Lego, and 2. Pulp Savannah – Amy Kean

The natural beauty of Lego

Broken bones, heaped, on the next chair.
In front, two fat lungs growling and full.
Sweat slides down the baubled face of the child
On the floor, playing manual labour with Lego.
Young Mr. and Mrs. Naïve, #blessed
Murmur a sweet prayer for the health
Of an embryo, their band aid future.
I shouldn’t be here now.
This fresh. This clean. This unlucky. Continue reading “1. The natural beauty of Lego, and 2. Pulp Savannah – Amy Kean” →

The Orange Tree – Lucy Whitehead

The Orange Tree

At the centre of a cloistered courtyard
encircled by curve and shadow
a ladder reaches from earth to sky.

While men whip the sin
from their flesh, red ribboned inside
darkened cells, or gaze Continue reading “The Orange Tree – Lucy Whitehead” →

In Limbo – Anne Casey

In limbo

A fighter falls to his knees—bloodied, all but broken.
A big man with small hands stands
stock still, unsullied.
Two lovers kiss, a humming bird
touches down on dust-palled ground.

Dragnet chases crisscross cityscape;
a dragged woman paces, hands on hips; coffee drips; Continue reading “In Limbo – Anne Casey” →

1. Running, and 2. Finding God – Ernest Ogunyemi

Running

I grew up counting the names of God,
all of them—it was the one thing Father taught me to do.
Father, unlike Moses, did not find the Lord in bushfire,
he had found him in fleeing from burning.
And I joined him (we all did), running.
I ran so much my heart began to ache,
my body began to shift perspective,
I began to see things other than what my eyes have been
taught to see—that I am not salt and light, Continue reading “1. Running, and 2. Finding God – Ernest Ogunyemi” →

Pulling Through – Laurie Koensgen

Pulling Through

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. ––– Matthew 19:24

It would take so much work
(forget the gospel metaphor)
to yank a tattered thread
through a fine-eyed needle
or a battered camel
through the last mirage. Continue reading “Pulling Through – Laurie Koensgen” →

1. Requisition, and 2. God, Look At God – Goodness Olanrewaju Ayoola

Requisition

And when I say I’m void of self-belief I’m trying to say I don’t live
The answer I’m trying to say I recognize helpless nature I’m trying to say
That I write God in the alfresco mother says he is ubiquitous like air I am a daily
SOS on some other days while I await heaven’s radar I re- arrange my misery
As a response driven to a space on the ocean’s expanse reciting each pain into pebbles
Feeding pebbles to strong currents I hang my scars like petitions around my neck Continue reading “1. Requisition, and 2. God, Look At God – Goodness Olanrewaju Ayoola” →

The Anger of Water – Kolawole Samuel Adebayo

The Anger of Water

Water rises
With a roar,
Forms a fist of iron
And throws itself at you.
I do not pray to see water angry.
It is mannerless;
Has respect for nothing
But its evil intentions.
Upon the blue sea, Continue reading “The Anger of Water – Kolawole Samuel Adebayo” →

1. Suddenly Blind, and 2. The Last Earthly Gift – Charlotte Hamrick

Suddenly Blind

The microwave is beeping in time to the pulse in my head.
My fingernails are splitting, one by one, leaving ragged points
that scratch my numbed face.
I wander from room to room feeling like this house
is a stranger that’s abducted me.
I go days without washing my face or brushing my hair

and I blame the moon. It’s too bright, it’s too big, Continue reading “1. Suddenly Blind, and 2. The Last Earthly Gift – Charlotte Hamrick” →

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