There’s Always a Viper at the Wedding Feast by Elizabeth J. Coleman

Only the footsteps, light
as rain, tell him she’s there.
Keep dreaming, Orpheus,
you’re almost at the top.

 

Romancing Taxis by Elizabeth J. Coleman

I step outside, call out to one
hail it, beautiful

sunflower.

 

The Piano by Stephen Gibson

in the lesbian bar (inked onto the photograph)
is to the viewer’s left, but is not being played;

 

Rossetti’s Preliminary Sketch of Elizabeth Siddal as Beata Beatrix by Stephen Gibson

When she posed as Beatrice, she probably
wasn’t thinking he would use this sketch of her
posthumously for the painting because she’d
have overdosed,...

 

Washington’s Crossing by Ernest Hilbert

The railway bridge looms above the river’s
Slow black, a stone Roman aqueduct,

 

From the Balcony on Heavy Metal Tribute Night at the Trocadero by Ernest Hilbert

Darkness throbs below. Four teenaged women
Execute thrash metal tributes, routines of
Accomplished ferocity,

 

Summer Scream by Ernest Hilbert

Dracula, done with his shift,
Sips a Schlitz under the boardwalk.

 

Mountain Retreats by Colette Inez

The Dipper fills up with days of being
noticed, opinions listened to,
talk of naming the moon.

 

American Revolutions by Sarah Kennedy

Well, no one would mistake it for a farm
            house—Ash Lawn down the road or, God forbid,
                        an ordinary mansion.

 

The Home Front by Sarah Kennedy

But why next door to the last house?  Unless
            she liked to stand upstairs in the new one,

 

A May Poem by Sarah Kennedy

Under a roof of rhododendron, in
nearly-summer, and the soft rain sounded
on the leaves,

 

light and dark by Donald Kuspit

luminous in the eye,
                            the budding innocence
anoints memory,

 

wondrous beloved by Donald Kuspit

you've risen again,
                           the last mirage of meaning,

 

high and low by Donald Kuspit

for every high
                  there's a low,
and below
             more suffering,

 

Instruments of the Home by Salgado Maranhão
Translated by Alexis Levitin

the window of the apartment spies
on the home

 

The Poet and Things by Salgado Maranhão
Translated by Alexis Levitin

things want to flash through
the poem

 

Mere Honor by Salgado Maranhão
Translated by Alexis Levitin

losing my shine, I turned sober.
dry, alone with myself, left-over.

 

Unnighting by Salgado Maranhão
Translated by Alexis Levitin

sun still nocturnal

 

Who to Blame by Ed Meek

When I fractured my knee I became one
of the lame. You see us on the streets,

 

On the Edge by Ed Meek

Lizzie must have known it was high enough before she jumped from the 7th floor of her apartment in Paris. Experts claim a psychotic break from reality occurs suddenly sometimes, even in middle age

 

Summer 1985 by Charles Rafferty

That was the season I wrote everything in Lucida, instead of Times New Roman.

 

Shadow by Charles Rafferty

Darkness that is me,
recognizable
only in profile,

 

Alzheimer’s by Don Riggs

If the eyes are the windows of the soul,
she stands there, inside, leaning on the sill,
watching, unable to name,

 

Watchband by Don Riggs

A wristwatch is a handcuff, it shackles
you to the consciousness of time;

 

Second Guessing by Don Riggs

Why is it that men--I should only speak
for myself now, but a woman once told
me the same thing

 

FROM WORK IN PROGRESS "WHICH TRIBE DO YOU BELONG TO" by Mark Rudman

Luck: to be paired with the unknown woman,
welcoming expression, blond, same age, still quite—

in her tank top and yoga pants she was born to wear,
and we’re instructed for the assisted back bend

 

The Black Panther by David R. Slavitt

A pink glow suffuses the cumulus,
tricked out with a delicate fringe of lace at the far
horizon in the east.

 

Flash and Glow by Lee Slonimsky

                                            I have returned,
alone, years later, on a business trip--

 

Whitman, Not a Cardiologist by Lee Slonimsky

I never knew the way the earth’s pulse beat
until I stood long hours at this spout

 

Flower by Lee Slonimsky

These thin blue petals crowd together so,
it’s hard to count them.

 

Pretty Girl by Lewis Turco

I asked Jack Maier, "Who is that pretty girl
Up there beside the schoolhouse?"  "Stay away
From her!" he said.

 

Po’ Poe by Lewis Turco

Who's that pecking at my door?"
"I'm the bird called 'Never More!"

 

Gray by Lee Upton

To drink in light or filter light,
rain streaming against the credit union,

 

Holly by Lee Upton

That day
the holly was hers,
the holly shining
with red berries,