Category: poetry

poetry

3 Poems – Anastasia K. Gates

 

*
Feed me the stars—
if I am born of stardust, 
what I crave is the taste 
of my own making.
*


 

 

 

 

*
“Peaches and cream 
warm as toast
soft as silk”
in this love, she woke me 
before i’d guess the color 
of her bra
*


 

 

 

 

*
Dear self: like a copper spoon pulled 
from fire, you melt then scoop me up
*


 

 

 

—

Anastasia K. Gates is an emerging poet, memoirist, and artist from Pennsylvania. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Vanuatu and Zambia and is a current student at Columbia University. Her work unearths the voice of global womanhood that wanders the natural landscape. She takes solace in the quietude of the forest, the fire of the sun, and the infinite universe within.

Follow her on Instagram @anastasiakgates.

poetry

Rib – Naomi Ruth Lowinsky

The long-tortured years
are flung away

in one fell swoop
and you’re my young

laughing mother
calling me “rippe”

German for rib
because I’m such

a skinny girl
as you were once

a skinny girl
before the great assault

of blood   
of breasts

 

—

Naomi Ruth Lowinsky’s poems have been widely published, most recently in Serving House Journal, Ginosko and Stickman. Her poem “Madelyn Dunham, Passing On” won first prize in the Obama Millennium Contest. She has also won the Blue Light Poetry Chapbook Contest. Lowinsky’s fourth poetry collection is The Faust Woman Poems.

poetry

For Mom – Lourdes A. Gautier

 

When I wear a color other than black, brown, tan or grey, 

it is my mother’s love of all things bright and beautiful 

that influences those choices.  

 

When I dance and sway to some Latin beat, 

it is my mother’s love of all things music 

that stirs the same in me.  

 

When I love my children more than I can express,

it is my mother’s unconditional love 

that she taught me to give.

 

When I long for a place to call home

it is because my mother gave up

and left me with none.

 

—

Lourdes A. Gautier resides in Bergen County, NJ. Her short story, 1952, was published in Acentos Review.  Her poems have appeared in Calliope and in the Silver Birch Press. She is also a contributor to the award-winning anthology, “These Winter Months: The Late Orphan Project.”

 

poetry

Lavender Lazarus – Mary Sims

& the truth is, I could have
done it. Could have ripped

the animal from my jaw,
could have bruised the bone

of this body until it gave way. 
But some things don’t spark

right & I know my name now.
Twelve sinners poured over

for the saint we all knew couldn’t
be, but we’re still here. The whole

time we choked quiet like a learned 
thing & thought how when the body

folds out what it cannot open, 
we too can shape a crease. 

 

—

Mary Sims is a 19-year-old poet and writer published in The Poetry Annals, Kingdoms of the Wild, Mooky Chick, Anatolios Magazine, Moonchild Magazine, and more. She is currently working on her BA in English, and spends her days reading, collecting books, and exploring antique shops.

Find her on Twitter: @rhymesofblue

 

 

Feature Image by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

poetry

slither in – Ada Pelonia

you tell me your dreams about snakes.
there’s the lingering question of what 
was happening    it’s been constant, you 
tell me, and i nod because i’m afraid of
snakes and i don’t have much to say 
but you bug me by telling it’s probably
the phallic symbol as siri told you so 
and i only laugh 

but in my head maybe
it’s because you slithered your way into
our home without you knowing i knew.
i want to tell you that i dream about
snakes, too, and that they eat me whole
alive and well until their fangs pierce 
right through my heart breaking every
string of vein constricting in my body
and i might add that the snake has the
same voice as you do when he answered
your call late at night to slip out of the
sheets i thought he only warmed for us 
two    that perhaps the snake is both of
us in context i’m not entirely sure

 

—

 

Ada Pelonia is a writer from the Philippines. Her work has appeared in Germ Magazine, Royal Rose Magazine, 101 Words, and elsewhere. Besides reading fictional books and reading anything that comes to her mind, she enjoys drinking tea during rainy days. She’s also on Twitter @_adawrites.

 

 

 

 

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash