Read Poem: The Ripper, by Martin Cox

My heavy heart ached as I faced the unsavory truth.
You did it again.
Did it so well. Discernible improvement.
Practice making perfection.
Surgically sophisticated. Sadistic fulfillment.
Your handiwork, sickeningly unmistakable. Styled.
Then, decampment. Precipitous. Complete.
Undoubtedly proud of your bestial performance.
Melding into the all-enveloping blackness of eventide.
A shroud bestowing sanctuary, at least ’til morn.
Your victim, now unrecognizable as human.
Naked, flayed, ultimately postured. Debased.
As others have been, post your fiendish attention.
I vowed I would seek you out. Track you down.
A human bloodhound on the scent.
Baying at a spectral full moon.
Oh, lucent orb, my silent witness.
Glowing in your borrowed illumination.
A faux sun mocking my perceived futility.
Smug, conceited, waxing, waning. Tacit.
A feckless, astral, deserted rock.
Knowing so much but proffering so little.
My disappointment in you, boundless.
But, now is the time to change tack.
Swiftly move on. Pastures anew. Reanimate.
A map has gained my attention, above all else.
A unique map, to be protected, guarded.
A spatial arrangement of ridges and valleys.
Though no cartographer’s hand was employed.
This, you left behind in your haste to withdraw.
A careless accident?
Perchance a clue?
A roadmap to your lair?
Maybe a flagrant effort to ensure capture?
Satiating the infamy you so perversely crave?
Or simple ignorance of Galton’s work?
Whatever. However. Capture you, I will.
I resolve to trace every line, every contour,
Each high and every low, until I am cognizant.
Knowing not where you hide, skulking.
For that, I will tarry until apprehension is assured.
From whence I will drag your putrid being,
To face a jury of your peers and ultimate justice.
Until that time, my sui generis bounty will provide me a name.
Your name you bastard…..
As a unique fingerprint, oft-times will.

Read Poem: GARDENER AT HOME by Alfonso Velis-Tobar

I woke up working in the garden today
Cutting the weeds that grow
Among the good flowers
I weed out the bad
Quietly working the land

Strengthening my heart in movements
A cherry blossomed white and tulips
The machete tied to my waist
gloves against
The cruel blood drawing thorns

Flowers by the good hands of my beloved
A palm hat on my head
A bottle of water in hand
a beer
There’s mist in the foggy dark

Jumps the squirrel
a seagull suddenly flies
From there to where today we sing
My desire to touch the wind and the clouds
Alone I stand at the dawn of spring

And the long stare dominates
the forest with a river that runs through
I heal the land from the worms that dry out the plants
In the baskets soon the cocoons will form
And butterflies jump in their natural magical flight

Memories of years passed also come
Away from the motherland that I keep in the heart
There I used to wake when the rooster would sing
Even when the cool wind would softly blow

By the hinge of the doors of that one house
How the hunger eats the roots of plants
The sunrise woke me glad to carve the yard
I’m learning to cultivate squash and legumes

Under the shade of the cherry blossom basking in the sun
When the buds bloom
alder perfume shall sprout
And orange rosebuds
Daisies
Gladioli
and red Carnations
Aroma of fresh breeze comes from the south with flocks of ducks

Next door I hear someone work
and the dog barks
I hear the distant murmur of the forest within the chants of birds
I’m pleased to work wherever the wind takes me
Oh sister nature doer of life doer of death
The heavens are serene asleep the Hummingbird remains
Already the sun has collected the entirety of my shadow…

Alfonso Velis-Tobar
From: “CRYSTAL OF STONES”
(Unedited poetry 2019)

Read Poem: The Fool’s Mantra, by Nik Benn

When I die,
I will leave the world a darker place than that of my birth.
I will poison my home.
I will kill my friends,
And their children and their children after that.
I will not stand up for what is right.
I will not help those in need.
I will not believe in freedom, justice and love,
Because to me these things do not matter.

I am not a good person.
I will not become a better one.
I will continue to ignore and abase any and all that are different from me.
I will believe in false leaders and false teachings.
I will follow who I am meant to follow.
I will obey without question.
I will not think
When I do think,
I will think only of obedience.
I will die wrapped warm in my hate,
And the world will be the better for it

Read Poem: The Best Of Friends, by Pastor Janet M. Fears

We can never let them know
of the love we have
they would only denounce it
and make it seem so bad
you are married to someone else
and I am married too
but it hasn’t stopped
the love I feel for you
we live in different houses
but on the same street
we speak cordially
whenever we pass or meet
we’re in the same social circle
my husband is your best friend
and your wife and I shop together
when the week comes to an end
from all outward appearances
we’re all the best of friends
while in our hearts we hide a secret
that could bring it all to an end
I wish that I could tell them
that our love is just and true
and I’ve never loved anyone
the way that I love you
but instead, we live our separate lives
and go on from day to day
doing our daily duties
in a very family way
our love will stay a secret
that’s how its always been
to those who live around us
we’re just the best of friends!

Read Poem: I Need a True Friend, by Patricia Dorian

If I begged you on my hands and knees
To split my head open
Would you refuse or would you agree?
If I were drenched in gasoline
Would you strike the match that would set my free?
If In the middle of the road I stood
Would you run my down if you could?
Or would you slam the breaks like a good boy should?
If I held a dagger upon my heart
Would you push my hands to tear it apart?
Or would you take away the dagger right from the start?
If I had a rope around my neck
And I’d be standing on a wooden stool
Would you push the stool and give a heck?
Or would you be a spinless, stupid fool?
If I gave you a loaded gun to empty inside my head
Would you laugh at me and run?
Or would you use it ‘till I’m dead?
After all, all I need is a true friend
To help me end my End

Read Poem: The uninvited guest, by Alex Hai

I am an immigrant

of my own premiere .

The cinema is full

of empty whispering chairs

Covid 19 is the uninvited guest

filling all movie theaters for now

I wish I could beam a few years back

so exciting

to see people taking their seats

The mumbling and cheers

in the pockets of my jacket

i would keep my empty hands

full of expectations

watching from the comfort of my sofa

Makes me feel uncomfortable

Read Poem: wanting the want, by D. Clontz

so late
after the fact there is fiction to this biography:

stained

like an October cheerleader i praise the shadows of summer

frosted

holographic wedding gowns

slip

across landscapes cooing the bark bare trees

leaves

like handprints on charcoal the bark bare trees

leave.

cordial gentle-people all they are – too late for the 19th century

i bid each adieu

like those summer mornings glistening
atlases of dew
eye drops

do. & not forgotten

i bid each adieu

like snowflake fingerprints etching
sketching

a digital sky i so want the warmth

a tear on
a blade of grass

Read Poem: Daddy, by Zaric Reed

Sitting here in the darkness, thinking about your darkness and how it turns from purple to pink in subtle increments and how some of the most poignant times in my life were me on my knees, praying to your pot of honey and you looking down at me whispering, “Oh, Daddy.” I thought I was the dominant one, but you knew how to wrap me around your middle finger and how to make me orgasm mentally, even when fully clothed and or milling through a crowd, knowing that you were there.

‘First time you called me, “Daddy.” It was said with such emotion and conviction that I was frightened and taken aback and although I’d been called “Daddy” before, the way you whispered it to me, made me know that those other women were simply pretending that Daddy was me. “I been bad, Daddy,” you said. “Punish me,” and I damn near went limp, ’til you smacked your own ass, showing me what a slave perpetrating a master must do for pleasure of both.

You called me, “Daddy” thereafter when you wanted or needed to get me to stay when I had to go, crawling naked around my legs like a kitty, rubbing your naked flesh against mine. You called me “Daddy,” just to stroke my ego and then you withheld the title, if I pissed you off by not doing what your pouty-ass wanted.

How can one word could be so powerful? And I though that “nigger,”held so much weight and was the most Herculean word invented, but oh no.

You don’t call me, “Daddy, “no more and it’s killing me, rotting me from the inside out and I die every time you call me friend, when I think of the energy that we generated, even naked sticky and entangled on your living-room floor or while sitting across the room, pretending that we don’t know that the other was near.

It’s more than mere dick or pussy, or tongue, lips or assholes it’s deeper. Much, much deeper.

When you call me, “Daddy, ” it’s visceral—it resonates in my soul, a word with such power to be wielded like Excalibur or the spear of destiny and it weakens any army of man, whom it’s directed towards.

You don’t call me, “Daddy,” anymore, weakens me near more than you calling me “Daddy,” but the fact that you may call another man such, kills me and in my arrogant mind nobody’s gonna love you like me.

Read Poem: HOME, by NIY

They say the same thing that can kill you
Could probably even heal you
Oh but what do they know

When it comes around
Their eyes begin to lie
Creating a world only they can see

But is that so bad momma
A world true to my eyes
A world where emotion resigns
Serving us all some sort of potion
Hoping we’ll never get lost in the commotion

How come we haven’t seen it yet
How come you don’t believe in it yet

Sometimes its in the air
Waiting for you to gasp for it
Waiting for you to ask for it

Filling up the lungs
Looking for a place to cure
Getting lost just to find a home that’s near

I can feel it in my heart now momma
Do you think it’ll stay in the dark now momma
I think its found its home now momma
Will it ever leave me alone now momma