Tag: poems

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

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

Nonconformity – Nisha Bhakoo

On a boat from Langkawi to Penang
I sat next to a woman who smiled easily,
she read a novel that was “borderline-erotic”
investigating this other life with curiosity,
another mind’s fantasy.
She was exquisite and breathing
lost in the labyrinth of movement –
chasing the sublime.

I drank in her stories –
she spoke of mediocre men
who rubbed against her like hungry cats.
Interpreting her desire in shallow ways,
disclosing their sexual routines,
interrupted often by my hiccupping laugh.
She spoke of the bee stings and brutality
that she had encountered as a child.
Like it was as simple as a sneeze,
she spoke to a stranger honestly.

 

—

Nisha Bhakoo is a British poet and editor, living in Berlin. She is currently working on a PhD on the uncanny in contemporary poetry at Humboldt University.  Her first poetry collection, You found a beating heart, was published by The Onslaught Press in 2016. Her second poetry collection, Black & White Dream, was published in 2018 by Broken Sleep Books. 

poetry

Prelude to My Epitaph – Sharon Ava Ezekiel

He’s breathing so I can’t.

I hate him for being.

He takes a pretty girl, I try not to watch.

He excels and I cannot move.

Aging on my couch.  My heart is skipping beats again.

Nothing bad ever happens to the perfect ones, like him.

Why not just once?  Everything is so damn uneven.

I am still being punished.

My heart is a dirt basement; sometimes I feel nothing.

And here he is again, to make my day even worse.

—

Sharon Ava Ezekiel is a registered nurse, attorney and native Ohioan. She has performed with a dance ensemble and loves all four-legged creatures.  Her work, “The Storm Cellar”, was published in Flash Fiction Magazine.