Afternoon of February 21, 2023

 

my toe is still blushing from meeting your foot at the boardwalk

~Nolcha Fox

Song


I'm exile

I'm smoke

I'm long dead in the trenches

I am home

nowhere

alive in the fire

erasing words

with the bone of a crow's wing

I'm alone with a voice

of the blank page

~Alexander Etheridge

Last Change of Address

The earth knows we’ll return‒‒

our few feeble movements 

down under the flowers,

and our names repeated like a song’s chorus 

so the ones left won’t forget 

through all the winters.

Look, moon, sun, and moon and sun again,

the mist coming down 

to the cold lake and the churchyard‒‒

It’ll all be forgotten.

~Alexander Etheridge

Past Life

It’s strange how time falls into itself.

One second I’m here, the next

I’m back in middle school---

the hour is bright, my friends there

are so young.

That long dead day is risen

and my life is gone into 

its white-gold October 

moment, my only

life.

~Alexander Etheridge

She opened her mouth

and swallowed a bird.

She spit out feathers

instead of words.

~Nolcha Fox

my dad

still never says much

ouija board

~petro c.k.

the chug-chug-chug of a party bus

~petro c.k.

no fewer people

could see me

than already did

~Noah Berlatsky

 

Ocean Daybreak Sketch

Fogshifts

and a respiration of inland trees

Unanchored graves

Foot-tracks of light

opening

along the lengths of the tide

~Alexander Etheridge

Retreat


Laundry

Expands to fill

All space. All time. The house

Is worn by clothes and we flap loose

Worn down.

~Noah Berlatsky