Band-aid
Posted by Marion Smallwood | Filed under Announcements
Bless you.
Thank you for forgetting
to cover your mouth.
I heard you sneeze
all the smoke from your teeth.
It sounded like
cigarettes drowning in jukeboxes
so I knew to leave.
You told me you stopped smoking.
But I wonder now,
what was in all that gray?
I can only guess
there was a coat,
a sock, a pair of books
and a ‘we have nothing in common anymore’.
I don’t breathe much these days.
Avoid me like beestings.
Please don’t look at me,
my hands are raining earthquakes.
I’m kidding,
try and pull a touch or two out of them
before I get wise enough to shove them back
in my pocket.
I will
because I can’t get your stench out my eyes,
you’re making them feel like mildew.
But maybe that was my fault,
it was snowing
when I introduced my face to the sky.
Sop me up with the storm coming,
pinch me to a wall and blow me down,
don’t let me go,
I’ll choke you ‘til you’re brown in the face.
I thought of you
right before the morning,
it felt like ripping.
I woke up melting,
my knees crack so oddly now.
My tattoo upside-down is your name.
I thought somewhere in the middle we tried.
By the way,
this isn’t a poem
it’s a band-aid.
Winter
Posted by Justin Ching | Filed under Announcements
A winter’s night,
Haven’t seen you in awhile,
Apologize if I’m having trouble making eye contact,
But you’re the same kind of gorgeous I remember,
And I’m not ready for that yet,
The weather still reminds me of the excuses we made to play Eskimo beneath bed your sheets,
When our noses were the best kissers this side of the north pole,
Not like those reckless things below,
American lips,
Too much tongue,
And not enough substance,
We used to arc flight paths across the heartland,
Lie upside down and flip them into the widest smiles from California to Manhattan,
You’re not as warm as you used to be,
And I chose a crowded restaurant where everyone knows me,
So I won’t make a scene this time ‘round.
Whether on a stage or a familiar place,
I’m always best when people are watching,
But there’s only been one person,
I’ve never been afraid to see me for who I am, naked,
And it’s been far too long,
How many times can I drive you home,
Watch the front door close stoplight red,
And wonder would you let me run it if no one’s around,
When I got home, I went to play basketball,
Because it’s the only thing I’m worse at than you,
And I need to feel good about us again,
It snowed on the walk back,
And I swore the sky was trying to romance me,
Sierra Leone mine diamonds from the stratosphere,
Have you ever tried to catch a dying star on your tongue,
It tastes nothing like forever,
More like innocence,
The dust of the February wind dancing halos under each lonely lamp post,
Until the earth is a blank slate again,
But I know now we can’t start over,
Because we don’t stick right anymore,
Love is not always white as wedding gowns,
Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty,
Like New Orleans jazz and the hurricane season,
The grit of brass band parades when the muck is up to your knees
Believe we can rebuild a home out of anything,
Take me back to Dixieland, I’m cold.
Fashion Update
Posted by Alysia Harris | Filed under Announcements
You know, not everything is poems, mic tricks, and sad love stories with us. We like other things as well, such as fly kicks and fresh hoodies. Sooo on the fresh hoody tip, I just got the dopest, sickest, illest hoodie EVER. I would say the designer just technicolor dookied all over this thing… only it’s black and white. Find me on the streets of Philadelphia and you will understand. The designer is called Custo Barcelona. Check it out. and Check me out!! Holla.
To Kiss the Granite Choir – A Textured Work of Fiction
Posted by Alysia Harris | Filed under Announcements
So, my mentor and friend and big brother Michael Ashley is an amazing short story writer and he has recently been published. I encourage everyone to read his story of a Mediterranean war culture that uses their voices as weapons. The prose is beautiful and borders on poetry. The story is called To Kiss the Granite Choir. So please check out the link. http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=59
