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 Oct 2017 Mandi
B Chapman
The house was quiet,
kid and spouse asleep.
I lit one candle,
a vanilla scent,
melting onto a pickle jar lid.

Moved the toys
Except of course
the squeaky yellow duck.

I filled the tub like a child.
Is there such a thing
as too many bubbles?
I sunk into the scalding bliss,
an ****** for the heart.

I soaked and sighed and giggled,
took a picture of foamy long legs,
and my toes painted red.

A perfect end
to a seemingly unending night
Until I choked on steam and had a panic attack because I couldn't breathe. But hey, it was a great five minutes.
 Oct 2017 Mandi
Carl Velasco
I open a
box of insecurities and
add one
more.
The sound of my voice.
The boys in their Vans
have them fully-formed by now,
chests heaving, with splotches of hair
and the usual marks of transition.
I don’t, I can’t have those
things. I meet the requirements:
I am a boy, I’ve tried it all.

But in my bed at night, sometimes,
the ocean hums its wavelength
of monsters screaming, howling
for a rise up, to see more light.
a cloud formation gargles and spits out thunders.
A shiver reaction. Muffled. Loud. The strike
cracks the lips of our skies,
and it confesses some secrets about
its own insecurities; that there is no more
wonder in silence, that there is constant
stimulation and reduced pondering,
that there is a need to get rid
of the bad feeling.

It says,
when the thunder strikes, listen
up and listen long and hard,
because there is plenty of
chaos from your own making, but I offer
you unannounced, unpredictable,
disjointed disruptions of comfort, and it is
I who make you scared of uncertainty. It is I
who make you jealous about my loud voice,
my formed voice, my raspy, powerful voice,
not the boys in their Vans.
 Oct 2017 Mandi
Akira Chinen
She was made of a language
no one could hear
and hand written in perfect cursive
by the scripture of the stars
and made from the sea and salt
of an ocean lost in a tear
and the color of blood
gave her lips all
of its crimson and rage
and she was there
when dreams took their first step
out into the void of the time of nothing
and she weaved his heart
from the poetry of leaves
and his bones from the past
before death had a cloak or a reason
and his flesh from
the soft skin of her kisses
and she tied the string of his heart
to the beat of her own
and no matter the story
or time of eternity
they would find one another
in the pages and between the covers
of the dreams they would have
and the life they would share
as they would invent
and discover and write
and rewrite the books of love
in the language no ears could hear
or eyes could see
but ever heart would feel
in between their first and last beat
 Oct 2017 Mandi
tragedies
Happy anniversary.

Can you believe
That it’s been a year?
I can still feel the first time,
Your hands danced on mine,
A soft presence, almost shy.
I could barely pay attention
To the film playing on television
Because there, right beside me,
A story was already unfolding,
One that was far more fascinating
Than any other mystery.

And it was.
Here we are, a year later,
The story continues to be
The most gruelling mystery
Of two people ceasing to be,
Of you & I never becoming we,
Instead, a strange, foreign word
To each other’s vocabulary.
I thought we both saw ourselves
In this picture perfect future:
Lying together on crumpled sheets,
Watching Sherlock on repeat,
Reading poetry and drinking coffee,
A state of being indescribably
Happy.

We were never meant to be that.
Only a manuscript tossed in the trash.
We loved too little, and bled too much,
Too proud to break the silence.
Too scared to end the sentence.
So let’s scrap the ending,
And go back to the beginning:

Happy anniversary.
10.14.17
 Oct 2017 Mandi
Lewis
Not even in the darkness
can there be shadow
Not even in the light
can you hide
from the things that seek you
keep you through the day
holding to your skin
well into the night
 Oct 2017 Mandi
Lewis
Instead of being born
you were given an approximation,
a number, and a grand lock
in a world made of half truths
and the whole a great salt ocean
that you will not tread

When you finally reach the surface
choking and gasping on salt water
you may realize your fatal error
and the god of wind won't fill your sails
he won't even grace your cheek
with a loving breeze of a hand

In death you may find no peace
only the absence of a body
drifting in a bitter daylight
halved and hollow hearted
all forms of life seek the simplest existence
nothing
 Oct 2017 Mandi
Lewis
With so much mass connectivity
and trading of information
I can't help but feel
like everyone is slipping farther away
from REAL people
from REAL experiences
Just a thought. I really felt the need to put something up since it has been so long, unfortunately I'm not feeling too inspired this morning.
 Oct 2017 Mandi
Lewis
I understand that it's a destructive process, I understand that you don't want to be wrong.
At every avenue I offered you a counter.
What exactly is it youd want me to do?
I'll remember every single sylable
of sentences said while sleeping soundly

only if its be able to remind you
We're on this earth with a counter
every second sand is seeping southward

— The End —