• Mystery –krista schwimmer 
• Half Heartedly – hillary kaye
• House of Cards – Doug Eisenstark
• Breaking Free – Janet C. Phelan
• repeat after me – Rex Butters

••••••••••••

Mystery 

Evenings when the birds

are still and i doze before dreams

the silence stirs up a kind of ache,

a presence that blows through me

like the sound through a shell 

abandoned by its inhabitant. 

What?  i reply. 

Who?  i wonder. 

We forge an alliance. 

Words drag through me, 

relentless currents pulling me towards

this ache & still i resist completely. 

i know what it is not:

god or love.  i have tested 

both & ache returns. 

Death lounges beside ache 

amused by my own bewilderment. 

Yet, it is not death either. 

Empty, ache whispers, empty. 

We form a strong alliance. 

And out of us, suns are born. 

–krista schwimmer 

***********

Half Heartedly

By hillary kaye

The phone

rings

half way

between a talk show

half way

through a half baked article

I am half way reading

half way

to a hot bath

that is half filled.

Right between

a day dream

about the other half

of a night

that I didn’t stay to see

the other half of

I answer

the phone

half heartedly.

••••••••••

House of Cards

House of Cards

All fall down

Throw up your hands

Oh My God 

What a surprise

who would have thought?

Who could have known?

Throw up your hands

OMG what a surprise

who would have thought

who would have known

House of Cards

House of Cards

throw up your hands

cover your mouth

cover your eyes

cover your nose

cover your ears

cover your butt

House of Cards

all fall down

OMFG !

What a surprise!

Who would have thought?

Who could have known?

–Doug Eisenstark

••••••••••

Breaking Free

It’s like diving into the sea

I explained to him

The icy shock

as the waters close over your head

your blood racing

to keep you warm

then the second shock

when you realize

that sometime/soon

you will need to breathe

and panic fills your lungs

It’s what you learn here

that changes you

You think you’re sinking

but you’re actually breaking free

Gravity becomes irrelevant

as you abandon the terra-bound rules

to their own complications

Movement is different here

slowed yet effortless

Grace settles into your limbs

and you begin to dance

The real epiphany

is when you realize 

you can still breathe

you can breathe/underwater

you can breathe/water

against all preconceptions

against all scholarly proclamations

against the dictates of centuries of dogma

and then you know

the world you lived in

was a lie

It’s a matter of believing

I told him

as his eyes washed with terror

Breathe in

Breathe deeply

I did it

You can do it too

It’s so much easier

when you know the truth

–Janet C. Phelan

•••••••••••

repeat after me

the elites educate you

to stop thinking

the elites want you to believe what 

their media tells you

the elites want tv to be

your reality

the elites want you to eat genetically altered 

nutritionally empty food

the elites want you to suspect everyone 

but them

the elites want unspeakable violence 

as the norm

the elites fully support

toothless artistic expression

the elites want every movie to revolve around

who has the gun

the elites want music to suck

the elites want poetry to rhyme

all the time

the elites listen to your phone calls

the elites read your emails

the elites want you to work three jobs

die young, burnt out, and broke

the elites hate women and children

the elites waste limited resources

for profit

the elites want to privatize your water

after they fill it with toxic waste

the elites want impotent acts of radicalism

to passify your heart and mind

the elites destroy community and culture

by raising rents

the elites want you to shut up and stay home

before a flickering light

the elites want their religions

to kill your spirit

the elites throw out

your votes

the elites want the truth marginalized

the elites want the truth sanitized

the elites want the truth institutionalized

the elites depend on you

not believing me

–Rex Butters