Under the green splendor
of duckweed, the sun turns
away, fish disappear

natural
wonderful balance
of the night

the bed-warm water filter
of silver and silky
black feelings

the parasite flowers
on the waves of ebb and flow
under the large autumn moon

and my love is rolling
back and forth between friends
and lost

There was a voice that called deeply in the night.
There was a thickening of life,
that slowed one's inner thoughts.
There was a suspended pendulum,
that ceased its free swing,
and all at once, it seemed,
there was motion in grief.
There was a single drop of rain, that caught the passing days.
There was a forward movement,
and inside the fray of life,
I could feel a light begin to take shape.

-Rhia Clay

Sunset burns
in my eyes
like a piece of nostalgia
not yet extinguished
at the border
of steel and soil
shadows stretch long
become a silent giant
bearing the weight of all these years
standing still in the fissure
of time
at the street corner where
town meets countryside
I remember the sparkling beach
waves murmur in foam
lapping the shores of memory
on the other side
it's the roar of bulldozers
the arousal of city’s neon
sinking into a soft sofa
is what many dwellers here call life
two souls twist in the night
loneliness heavier than our skeletons
two unfamiliar thoughts pressed
in a momentarily illusion
breaths synced like a metronome
falling and rising
searching for any place to land
wind tapping the windowpane
bringing the paleness of dawn
behind us
who are numb to the passion
mountains stretch on
silent and strong
lifting a vast sky
beneath it all
is the weave of city and country
the tangle of dreams and reality
and the countless footsteps
of the faceless
setting out again, fading down the hall
in the morning
faint click of a door
sealing off the shape of
a little comfort.

It wasn’t the two of us at the start.
Day turned to night,
and suddenly we couldn’t part.
From one of the many faces,
To one I could pick out from the crowd.
We weren’t sure of ourselves before,
But one thing’s for sure now.
We’re caught in the torrent —
We found ourselves headed to the deep end.

At the blue hour
the victorious night
routs the retreating day

“I don’t talk because,
when you try to keep all hearts a piece;
yours shatters into a million shards,
and scatter into the night sky.

I don’t talk because,
I don’t even know what I feel
beside the feeling it *****.

I don’t talk because,
my ear has far more worth to me.

I don’t talk because,
I know you’re in a good
place right now.

I don’t talk because,
my shoulders have calloused,
and can carry this a little longer.”

A.V.