SWIMMING ON THE MOON

by Amy Barone

ESA via MIT Technology Review

A yellow ribbon of angst floats above.

During the lockdown, some spent days

baking bread, while a friend nearly starved

to death—driven to the ER by fear and seclusion.

 

A magnet for benign and wicked misfits,

I pull a mask over distress, pluck thorns

from my sides, and spend fitful nights

asleep with people still in my system.

 

Now that water’s been spotted there,

I think I’ll head to the moon for a swim,

embrace lunar life off the grid, get revived

on a smooth intergalactic ride, as I wave goodbye

to bugling elk, dazzles of zebras, and dozing cuttlefish.  

Amy Barone’s poetry collection, We Became Summer, from New York Quarterly Books, was released in early 2018. She wrote chapbooks Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing.) Barone’s poetry appears in Local Knowledge, Paterson Literary Review, Sensitive Skin, and Standpoint (UK). She lives in NYC.

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

by Tricia Knoll





We have feasted
so long
on anger

slathered on our bread
heating up our coffee
fried up in lard.

We knew
that angst and anxiety
pickle up that anger.

Fear makes food
taste like sawdust
and worms

until the wellspring
fills, runs clear,
and someone takes

the child’s hand
to offer a clear
and cool sip

and the old song
something can be saved
the game can still be played

sprinkles like rain on what burns
slides like teardrops
pours like love.

Tricia Knoll was for many months in the Bernie Sanders wing of Democratic voters, a loyal Vermonter. She has a voice disability and was deeply moved to hear Brayden Harrington's speech in support of Joe and the selflessness of a man who stops to help a kid with stuttering. She is preparing letters every day for Vote Forward to urge liberal leaning voters to vote.

SERENITY SERENADE

by The Bangkok Bards Saknarin Chinayote & Charles Frederickson

Let reality be reality spontaneously
Flowing wherever it so chooses
Find bliss stay a while
Pause to reflect harmless pleasures

Accept what is desiring less
Achieving more relax trusting reanquility
Feeling oneness with natural quietude
No whistles horns sirens alarms

Good humor helps lighten burdens
Genuine smile soothing calming influence
Cheerfully attracting keeping devoted friends
Disposition antidote for depressing angst

Inhale exhale it does help
Breathe in deep hold it
Silencing overactive imagination which never
Knows when to shut up

The quieter you become the
More you’re able to hear
Filter out noisy stressful static
Concentrate on inner consciousness tranquility

Filling emptiness with overflowing nature
Commit energies to environmental awareness
Planet balancing equilibrium passed on
Future generations spoiled brat legacy

No Holds Bard Dr. Charles Frederickson and Mr. Saknarin Chinayote proudly present YouTube mini-movies @ YouTube – CharlesThai1 .

TOUR DE LANCE

by Jay Logan Lance

The Tour of France
has left its lance
behind, its jousted dance
on metal steeds, enhanced
with transfused medicaments,
belied the chance
that one, perchance,
être franc,
his cyclic prance
sept fois romanced,
his many “I did not” comments,
his anger-ridden rants,
his strong-arm stance,
his cure-for-cancer finance-
ment now seen askance,
and we, his many fans,
ask why, why Lance?


Jay Logan Lance is currently an MFA student at National University and a middle school science teacher in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.