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 Jul 2016 N
Corvus
Spending a month in a hospital teaches you a lot about people.
The doctor that told me to shave my head or she wouldn't treat me,
The nurses that spent forever chatting to me
And giving me supportive advice about how my illness doesn't define me.
The woman who was given a terminal cancer sentence
And chose not to pay attention to it and defied it anyway.
How she sat next to me on my bed,
Told me that all suffering is valid,
And just because I'm not dying, doesn't mean I don't get to complain.
How she complains more about her skin problems
Than she ever complained about her cancer,
And that's OK, because pain rarely follows rules.
I never even learned her name,
But she gave me the words I hold most closely to me
On those days when I want to fall asleep and never wake up.
I'm allowed to scream and shout and rage against the pain
And the unfairness of it happening to me.
I just have to make sure I know where the line is
Between giving my darkness a voice and pitying myself.
 Jul 2016 N
Dimitrios Sarris
A crown does not make someone a king.
The woman he loves and call his queen,
prays and stares from afar, for all the blood
and tears he will spill.
All the people he led and promised, craft a
crown for himself. No gold, no diamond
but pure silverlight.
All he survived and almost got him killed
made his spirit bend but never faltered,
for his wounds of honor are self inflicted.
Power did not corrupt him.
Well prepared to lure himself and pick a top.
Heart of a lion, a shrouded armor and a blooded crown,
he is the king...
 Jul 2016 N
cgembry
I prefer writing
 Jul 2016 N
cgembry
I have never stuttered in pen
misspoken in ink
or choked in my writing
the way I do
whenever I speak
my fingertips always know
the right words to say
my tongue is still learning
 Jul 2016 N
ahmo
rooms
 Jul 2016 N
ahmo
i.
pictures hung so abundantly like there was a ponytail for every assorted alcoholic beverage that would go down while you sat on the counter top with grey in your eyes
or on my lap like lavender gloves. i bought flour and red velvet as atonement, but hollow words are as indicative of unfaithfulness as your eyelashes were indicative of my heartbeat speeding up like your raggedy red Taurus on the Pike and slowing down like our souls in self-reflection, co-morbidly.

ii.
i clip to cold like frozen gnomes but the room with fire was bellowing through the chimney in your irises. it was the ceiling i was the most comfortable collapsing under. Merlot, you are a peach and almost all of the sun that our brains can ultravioletly receive. There is no where to run to when logs and THC are crackling while you let my try on your scarves and you rub my arm horizontally like there was no famine or *** trafficking in the world. The rabbit is always right and Dewey loved the hay and telling us that we belong together. there was no time to guess the right combination of psych meds and there was certainly no one there to close the sliding glass door.

we'd unzip and kiss in a mist of dampened television volume while everyone was asleep. i fell into you, first in billions of separate-cardboard puzzle pieces and then all at once like oblivion within a climate-controlled stadium.


iii.
i noted the same pictures in this room and how your ponytails ended all existing threats to human suffering.

iv.
i loved the dark and the stars and the soupy-vacuum, pulling us in and spitting us out like a bitter mango.
there was never any water in your pool to turn green and so the unfilled concrete was an ocean to our symmetrical lawn-chair thrones, radiating green jeans and the hazel-stained dream-scene.

we lost what vision was real and what was a dream. this was a gift beyond any explanation or expectation. yet, you wouldn't let me remove all of the shrapnel and funnel antibiotics with my barren fingertips onto your scalp.

v.
here, there was kin-
the only room in which your skin didn't show me a piece of you,
but your words did.
there's a way that all of our lives collide like a supernova and our explosion felt more like a hundred-decade erosion,
giving and taking from each other like a sea-side boulder and the tide.


vi.**
you finally showed me the flesh you were ashamed to show the couch, your bed for two in Easthampton, mac & cheese without almond milk, the top of Wachusett, the pit of a pizza dish, the sink of the swooning stitches, the empty pool, the movie theater, your fake bras, and
everything else that supported us like an apparition that wouldn't return my favorite t-shirts.

and i was in.

my fingernails were there. every hair i touched while panic deducted consciousness in some scarce granting of a wish was another prarie for me to grow corn and flowers and ecstasy within. every single crop died but i never forget how self-loathing turned into a comforting sleep. we ran from consciousness like a runaway train but you were always on my back, whispering that solidarity was a the solution to a world that values prosperity over pragmatic humanity.

all the tears and dreams that danced like the branches in the frigid, unforgiving winter were dried up like a creek that i lost consciousness in when you shut the door.

these spaces exist in purgatory because i don't remember my dreams anymore and nothing really ever means anything,
like biting off my fingers in all of these rooms that are left with only memories of you.
 Jul 2016 N
Nathan Box
June 2016
 Jul 2016 N
Nathan Box
For my 2016 writing project, I’ve decided to write a single line of poetry every day for an entire year. Below, is June’s poem. Enjoy!


A crack runs through the windshield.

This is how life goes.

Perhaps, a metaphor for something bigger.



We move down the road;

Drinking in the scenery like quiet passengers.

Our view is obstructed though.



A crack runs through the windshield.

A tear cuts across me too.

Perhaps, neither shall be repaired.



Travel provides life lessons.

These vistas seen at 70 MPH matter.

Who is sitting next to you matters more.



A crack runs through the windshield.

No break found in the rearview;

Future and past boldly symbolic.



I grab his hand.

In the safety of this car, there is no one to judge.

Our love is left alone.



A crack runs through the windshield.

I don’t belong to this fate.

This wasn’t meant to be my life.



The highway won’t claim me.

It will set me free.

Unbound, hovering over yellow stripes.



A crack runs through the windshield.

We are defined by the optical illusion.

Things could be worse.



We are finally free.

He will forever be mine.

Cracks can be repaired.
 Jul 2016 N
Astrid Michaels
I realize
That not all men
****

That not all men
Beat

That not all men
Brutalize

That not all men
Leave

That not all men
Are destructive

But it's enough men
For me to be scared
Of all men
 Jul 2016 N
Mayofficial
Memories
 Jul 2016 N
Mayofficial
When I’m overwhelmed with tears at night..
Emotions are an ocean that consume me.

Soft waters flow down my cheeks as I reminisce about us and our brief memories..

It was a year ago..
Remembering your soft blue eyes slowly closing on a plane.
Your shakey hands would lay so softly in your lap, slowly drifting away…

You finally had some time to rest.

I loved the mornings when you would turn over and hold me.
A still warmth.

In my indecisiveness you took control,
in my want for nothing you gave me your all.

Just by tugging your hand, your eyes would soften and your voice more calm.

You're raging storm silenced..
Darling I’m here now.

-
I knew you..
Well, just the part of you revealed to me, of course..

I remember when you would downturn your lip and look across when you were unsure..

Yet twist your hand up to say ‘come on lets go!'

I remember when I unhung the turquoise dress from your wardrobe..
I chose it because it matched your eyes..

If only you knew how beautiful your eyes looked under an Italian sunset..

I remember us climbing on top of the old town, watching the sun go down..
The glazing orange skyline blessing your angelic face.
All I could ever want was here.

With you.. there was no pain.
No sadness, no war and no violence..
With my resting head on your shoulder.
No words, just peace.

My memories are a clear water..
Climbing the church tower and cycling the city.
Reaching for my hand up the stairs to make sure I was safe.
I could never catch up to you.

In a room full of art, *all I could see was you.

In a town full of blessings, YOU were mine.

While my body was broken, you were my healer.
How in a brief moment, you loved me and let me go.

Intoxicated nights,
but a blazing fire as soon as the front door shut..
The balcony doors opened..
The night sky saw our passion, only the stars knew our secrets..

How in a short space of time you became so impressionable on my soul,   my inner being.
A feeling.. a place I didn’t know existed within me.. awoken.

I’ll never forget how happy you made me, and still make me when I replay those memories.

Yet memories are just memories..
I pray that I find a way to put to sleep..
The fire that burns within me.

*When I’m overwhelmed with tears at night..
Emotions are an ocean that consume me.

Memories.
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