Extremities by D.C. Wojciech

Sky is Raining Coyotes by Ricky Armendariz

EXTREMITIES

Through the open window coyotes
enter my skull. They pick at the mind
with their singing teeth. In an empty
room I've been smoking the same joint
since 2002. Turning sharp corners
and breathing like an animal. The plane
inside appears only after splitting
the tongue. I'm speaking to you and
the orbs & spectres circling your crown.
Pacing and weaving incense in the air.
To revere what vision cannot still.
Rings of oleander unfold my throat inside
the color of daylight. Their shadows are naked &
smuggled in from temporary deserts. Those
to follow will be lonely & full of joy. Seeds
of reckoning found in lean undulating hours.
In renounced rhythms. In the eyes. Swaying
from its center. The gleam of another world
ripens the original fix.

'Go Tell The Bees' by Eli T. Mond

'GO TELL THE BEES' 1/3 (2018) by Eli T. Mond

'I AM DEAD ' 2/3 (2018) by Eli T. Mond

'AND FULL OF LIFE' 3/3 (2018) by Eli T. Mond

Go Tell the Bees

At the moment of my final breath,
Before a single human tear is shed,
Rush to the fields, face the wind,
And tell the bees that I am dead.
Leave a loaf of bread and a glass
Of wine on the Earth beside their hive,
And hear the buzzing mourners sing
Hymns in honor of my newfound stillness.
Hum with them as they rise and fall
With me, an empathic gesture mirroring
My descent into the bowels of oblivion.

FAREWELL, SPRING

Summer by Frank Lobdell

FAREWELL, SPRING

Daylight strings in fissures of fear & joy
streetwalk settling
pushers pimps
cabbies thrifties
& other gone galaxies
subluxed from the source
in this concrete jungle
tumbleweed imagio
the warm blade of air
turning faces
meat in the windows
going fast and faster
so you find my ancient
voice
in the aftermath
of dawn's chariots
one look at your domed eyes
and she disappears
—from what bus stop
bench or green plastic
fern was the oasis staggering
to greet you? I am hungry
for ink & eucalyptus. I turn
the other cheek & shadows dance.
I become adjacent & contaminated
with ecstasy.
If you must follow me,
follow g-d
all the way past 5th avenue
in rags of south & west
I will show you strange rhythms
of tears I will tell you the
mountain's eyes I will open
relic mirrors. There are voices
within every voice.
I'll let the sun
be another star. I'll
salute the black crows
twist last night's smoke
beg of the piano rain
and
leave

- d.c. wojciech

Loose gravel

The crack of road- as wind is let through,
        Hushed pebbles, sweating in
Patina heat. Mumbling of tire rut,

Of dead horse track. Under foot-
It snaps like dried husk.

My feet- trail sore - like whipped sands,
Mouthful of sky. Road made of clay-

Where grackles spit, sputter over loose feather- over cowhide

Over my sweat lifting like a mist-
As rock is smashed deeper into the earth.

-joseph delgado

'Sea of White Above Me' by Eli T. Mond

Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis - LIGHTNING - 1909

Sea of White Above Me

There is a storm above my bed.

Cumulonimbus towers bursting

From my head like temples

To spirits of a pagan persuasion;

Full of bubbling silhouettes,

Nebulous in their frames,

But certain of the power in their names.

They strike from on Abysmal High

And lightning carves a thousand scars

Into my viscid skin.

Scars that twist and turn to eyes

And peer with the lust of hunting raptors—

Demons of the Earth, now taken to the sky.