Poet of the Month: Glory Sasikala
The Final Snowflake: A Contrapuntal Poem by Troy DeFrates
My Hurry by Edilson Afonso Ferreira
Ruthless Ruin by Ndaba Sibanda
Love between the Seasons by Ahmad Al-Khatat
For your heart redefined by Jayanta Bhaumik
Moon Dust by CL Bledsoe
This Love by Edward Lee
In The Depths of Your Voice by Uma Venkatraman
The Search For Planet Nine by Bruce McRae
Poet of the Month: Glory Sasikala
Office Blues
In the stillness
Someone coughed
Someone yawned
Boss on phone
He –
Control A
Control C
Control V
Copy-pasting
My thoughts
In his diary.
The whirring fan
My ice-cold
stare
Blank at screen
Her tinkling laughter
jarrs on my tired brain
Switch off.
Time to go home…
Just Friendship?
He called it ‘just friendship’
She said I agree with you
They hung around together
All the time and time just flew
He styled his hair the way she liked
‘Twas for her that he wore that shirt
And when she fell in love
With someone else
He wondered why it hurt?
Erotica
Darkness merging with light
The blue opalescence of fear
Giving way to crimson blush…
Droplets of perspiration
On velvet soft skin….
Swirling skirts
And sidelong glances.
The comforting warmth
Of cupped palms
Fingers in feather-light strokes
On strands…….skimming curved surfaces.
A thousand ripples
Of electrified response…
All is still
In heated response
Beating down, cruel and crushing
Draining, draining…..
Not a thought left
In those heated senses.
Flying Home,
A descending peace
A settling down
In the crook of the arm
In an aftermath
Of complete satisfaction.
The continuity
Of dreamless darkness
Where two souls
Merge as one
Neverendingly
In ecstasy…
Glory Sasikala is a poet and writer currently residing in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. She is the Editor and Publisher of the Monthly Online Prose and Poetry magazine, ‘GloMag’ and is the administrator of the group of the same name on Facebook. She is a language editor and quality analyst by profession.
The Final Snowflake: A Contrapuntal Poem by Troy DeFrates
Transitions:
Transitions in life are often followed with pain
There is pain that is already there or you would not be changing
Washing away the past in the cold driven rain
Feeling alone as the seasons exchange
Never again to exist the same
Accept what is coming there is nothing to blame
A Dying Breed:
Leaving you here as the last of your kind
A singular existence passing with time
In your mind you cannot find
Your time is brief, what a crime
Uniqueness is part of nature’s game
The last of your kind you should have no shame
The Final Snowfalke
Transitions in life are often followed with pain
leaving you here as the last of your kind
there is pain that is already there or you would not be changing
a singular existence passing with time.
Washing away the past in the cold driven rain
in your mind you cannot find
feeling alone as the seasons change
your time is brief, what a crime.
Never again to exist the same
uniqueness is part of nature’s game
accept what is coming there is nothing to blame
the last of your kind you should have no shame.
Troy lives in the Great Woods of Northern Wisconsin, U.S.A., And has been published 25 times in the last year in various magazines and periodicals. He loves to share his art and hopefully inspires others to share theirs in kind.
My Hurry by Edilson Afonso Ferreira
They do not know that I am in a hurry.
A hurry to love this world even more,
with all people destiny has given to me,
fellow travelers in the common journey.
A hurry to instill and teach my children
the art of goodwill and mutual respect,
pillars that bring us closer to the Creator.
A hurry to fight the good fight, wielding
my sword, my mind and my will
against hopeless and unfaithful brothers,
acolytes of those fallen angels who envy,
hate and despise happiness, love and
the common good.
A hurry that before the end of my days,
may I help us to be closer to the promised land,
where milk and honey flow and evil ever hides,
defeated, disoriented, humiliated.
.
Edilson Afonso Ferreira, 75 years, is a Brazilian poet who writes in English rather than in Portuguese. Largely published in international journals in print and online, he began writing at age 67, after retirement as a bank employee. Nominated for The Pushcart Prize 2017, his first Poetry Collection, Lonely Sailor, One Hundred Poems, was launched in London, November 2018. He is always updating his works at http://www.edilsonmeloferreira.com.
Ruthless Ruin by Ndaba Sibanda
There was
A menace.
A genocidist.
A gukurahundist.
A wrecker of life itself.
He possessed oppression.
Brutality. Immunity. Iniquity.
A real wrecker of a rich nation.
What a life and a foul lie he lived.
His legacy is not only a disgrace
But also a wreck and a hellhole.
Dissent he couldn’t stomach. No.
High was his heartlessness. Ego.
It knew no apologies but orgies.
For all his vile, selfish decisions–
His failures, his sellout actions
He had scapegoats, sycophants
There was shamelessness in it
In his blame game: be it critics,
The opposition or the West or all
Sadly some fell victim to his foolery
He was a cunning and cruel tragedy.
Never frank. No. Ever power-hungry.
He sang of unity as a phony unifier.
He was no panAfricanist. Not at all.
He was a schemer and a divisionist.
The great grandstanding and bashing
Of the West and ‘detractors’ didn’t
Translate into either a total of patriotism
Nor an epitome of panAfricanism. Fallacy.
Surely he was one of the foulest violators
Of rights and dictators of modern times.
Sanctity of life he disrespected stoically.
The history books must be exorcised
Of lies and dishonesties otherwise history
Will not only judge a bunch of pretenders
And confusionists and denialists severely
But as facts` rapists and insensitive loyalists
Who ignore the reality of shallow mass graves
Whose orphaned tears continue to seek justice.
Ndaba Sibanda has contributed to the following anthologies: Its Time, Poems For Haiti- a South African anthology, Snippets ,Voices For Peace and Black Communion. He edited Free Fall (2017). The recipient of a Starry Night ART School scholarship in 2015, Sibanda is the author of Love O’clock, The Dead Must Be Sobbing and Football of Fools. His work is featured in The New Shoots Anthology, The Van Gogh Anthology edited by Catfish McDaris and Dr. Marc Pietrzykowski, Eternal Snow, A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma scheduled for publication in Spring/Summer 2017 by Nirala Press and Seeing Beyond the Surface Volume II.
Love between the Seasons by Ahmad Al-Khatat
I see
you in
the blue sky,
you
became
a dark cloud
I dream
of you in
a rainbow,
you dream
of me in
autumn
Ahmad Al-Khatat was born in Baghdad, Iraq. His work has appeared in print and online journals globally and has poems translated into several languages. He has been nominated for Best of the Net 2018. He is the author of The Bleeding Heart Poet, Love On The War’s Frontline, Gas Chamber, Wounds from Iraq, and Roofs of Dreams all of which are available from Amazon. He lives in Montreal, Canada.
For your heart redefined by Jayanta Bhaumik
if you have ever seen it remapped again
the world of your heart
arcs of continents curled to lonely beats,
rhizomes faded through
dreams walled along atriums
there are mica hills beside aorta
It is always trillions of people every moment
serving with furores and lengthier cannons
at the insides of bloodlines,
sleepless, calling to the answers
splashed through the secret of ventricles
a country there waiting for your boat
a terrific king is loving the oxygenic moments
blue icicles to question your
footprints in capillaries
a new kind of wisteria open to pulmonic valve
agony of undersea in every breath taken
besides, sad birds of the drift flapping at your skin,
right where, a happy moth-grey tree
enjoys your ribcage –
as you halt your trip once, and you begin
thinking over the surface of your heart
if there is another life buried beneath the soil
if there is someone’s love cast inside its mine
Jayanta Bhaumik is currently based in Kolkata, India. Basically from the field of Metaphysics and Astrology (a Research Member of American Federation of Astrologers Inc.), he finds Poetry as his world of Quest. He finds a period in Singapore and other south-east Asian countries every year for his professional assignments. His works can be found in the recent issues of Poetry Super Highway, Zombie Logic Review, Merak Magazine, The Pangolin Review, Pif Magazine, Better Than Starbucks. He is on Facebook and Twitter @BhaumikJayanta.
Moon Dust by CL Bledsoe
You learned love from the moon’s attentions
to the sea. When light strikes,
it leaves fire and pain, rot replaces vibrancy.
Best to sing from a distance
and hope you aren’t heard. When they learn
someone has survived, they’ll
do their best to eat you in hopes of tasting
regret. Hire the greatest
marketing firm known to America,
and you won’t change
a single heart. (Also, keep an eye on your
vintage tie collection.)
Hatred is a waste of time, but that doesn’t
mean you should ever trust
those who carry ketchup in their chest
pockets. If they get too close,
show your teeth. You’ve spent a lot
to reveal the bone in them.
CL Bledsoe’s latest poetry collection is Trashcans in Love. His latest short story collection is The Shower Fixture Played the Blues. His latest novel is The Funny Thing About… Bledsoe lives in northern Virginia with his daughter and blogs, with Michael Gushue, at https://medium.com/@howtoeven.
This Love by Edward Lee
I enclose my hand
around the blade of you,
your serrated edge slicing flesh,
releasing blood
to flow from my hard palm
to my already scarred wrists.
But I refuse to let go,
my love for you
compelling me to endure your edge,
no matter the cost,
no matter the pain;
I already know
I cannot live
without you, just as I know
I cannot exist
without the scars that tattoo my body
and my being.
.
Edward Lee’s poetry, short stories, non-fiction and photography have been published in magazines in Ireland, England and America, including The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, Acumen and Smiths Knoll. His debut poetry collection “Playing Poohsticks On Ha’Penny Bridge” was published in 2010. He is currently working towards a second collection. He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Lewis Milne, Orson Carroll, Blinded Architect, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy. His blog/website can be found at https://edwardmlee.wordpress.com
In The Depths of Your Voice by Uma Venkatraman
I see a world
beyond my reach
I hesitate to step into
this ocean of emotions
in which I know
I will drown
But my feet
respond to the lilt
of your words,
I drift deeper into
the abyss of your
silken syllables
and in the crevasses
of your silence
I stumble into love
Living in Singapore, India-born Uma Venkatraman is a journalist with a passion for poetry. She has been published in anthologies such as Good Morning Justice, Along The Shore and Beyond The Hill, and online in Pink Panther Magazine, The Rising Phoenix Review, L’Ephemere Review and Plath Poetry Project.
The Search For Planet Nine by Bruce McRae
It’s out there, somewhere,
freewheeling and coy,
tugging on the beard of gravity,
on the path of least resistance.
You can’t see it, but listen –
the sound of a bottle
rolling across a table.
The tattle of mice scurrying.
Sounds of light rain
making its way in the dark.
Planet X, feeling the cold.
Feeling its age.
The sun’s secret servant,
wise men sieving night from day,
weighing circumstance
like bettors chasing fortune.
They realize, once a thing is
hidden it has to be found.
It has to be hard to find.
It’s next to impossible.
.
Bruce McRae, a Canadian musician currently residing on Salt Spring Island BC, is a multiple Pushcart nominee with over 1,400 poems published internationally in magazines such as Poetry, Rattle and the North American Review. His books are ‘The So-Called Sonnets (Silenced Press), ‘An Unbecoming Fit Of Frenzy’ (Cawing Crow Press) and ‘Like As If” (Pski’s Porch), Hearsay (The Poet’s Haven).
