She’s trying to fly with
crippled wings and join
her dreams together with
guitar strings and when
she sings she sings her
songs of how she tries
to get along with the long
harsh road she’s been
wandering on as she tries
to fly with crippled wings
and join her dreams together
with guitar strings

-
by Aleksander Mielnikow

i stop things from being said

the weather is rather warm

it’s been said enough

like that ed sheeran song

i don’t want to be so repetitive

i’m in love with your body

how it gets so revolutionary

It pants, tugs, strains, yearns
Wrestles with its collar
Tags clink and chime
Songs of persistence

The cliff looms over like a monolith,
Radiating a ghastly aura.

I can’t bring myself to cut ties
Even if I know that their eyes
Hold a different light than before.

There’s no way I can leave now.

The monolith stands above
And I need to find the top.

Paradise is just over this precipice,
So why can I no longer see it?

Love Is Not Love
by Michael R. Burch

for Beth

Love is not love that never looked
within itself and questioned all,
curled up like a zygote in a ball,
throbbed, sobbed and shook.

(Or went on a binge at a nearby mall,
then would not cook.)

Love is not love that never winced,
then smiled, convinced
that soar’s the prerequisite of fall.

When all
its wounds and scars have been saline-rinsed,
where does Love find the wherewithal
to try again,
endeavor, when

all that it knows
is: O, because!

Published by The Neovictorian/Cochlea, The Deronda Review, Better Than Starbucks and Stremez (translated into Macedonian by Marija Girevska)

Keywords/Tags: Love, zygote, binge, mall, soar, fall, wounds, scars, tears, persistence, hope, fetal ball, sob, sobs, sobbing, shake, shaking, throb, throbbing, wince, wincing, smile, smiling, convinced, prerequisite, wherewithal, endeavor, just because

Please.
Even here; even now
                             as I paint a board that may yet end up scrapped
Remind me softly,
Surely,
I am here for more than passing through.
Someday does not exist in some
Tantalizing intangible form.
Even here; even now, it is in the making.
Now, with every beating heart
Conquering every shaking hand
Even here; even now
                                           as I rest while my paint is drying.

Lost Causes / (n) (plu):

1. Streets leading to dead-ends.

2. Children cursed shortly after birth by their fairy godmothers.

3. People diagnosed with last stage cancers.

4. Women you know are bad for your mental health and must chase nonetheless. Women, pretty, pretty women, with good hearts, and good intentions, and invariably bad decisions. Strong women who make you weak in the knees. Women with loud laughter who you know might make you cry for years afterward. Women, glowing, luminous women, leaving only darkness and silence in their wake. Lonely women looking for more loneliness.
Women needing love and not believing in it.
Women causing lost-ness.
Lost-ness causing women.