some people like to play it safe clinging to the banks of the river others float right down the middle and still others go where they want not paying attention to the rest Ken Tomaro is an artist and writer living in Cleveland, Ohio whose work has been published in several literary journals. He has […]

At first, I was from the motherland. Frijoles con queso y bolillo raised me. Corn tortillas kept me alive. I am from where the eagle perched on nopales. Green as the mountains the Aztecs called home. White as jicama con chile and limon. Red as the blood of my indegenous mothers. I came from maternal […]

The soldier stated on war—Die before the startIt saves food and gasolineAnd torment in peace—It’s a fucking haiku from up hereBad advice is turningInto beautiful poetryAnd I’m starting to see the humourIn this hopeless situationThat I’ve found myself withinI’m on the edge of mindAnd the plunge is screamingI need to fly freeBut do you thinkReally […]

another chance / to have it / all / (&) right / we the molecules / coast / free / of bodies broken / & breaking / away / above / in the ether / we eat cotton clouds / for breakfast / for lunch & dinner / we consume / & consummate / poetry […]

On tiptoe I extend my fingers toward the dark mouths of stage’s end, their glittering rows of hot teeth. On whose shoulders do I live? My toes grip, my calves bulge like nervous eyes. I can trust him with my neck. He is the strong man, these are the shoulders I tried to push away […]

distance the sun shakes itself loose from the plaster of clouds, still awakening from the sigh of last night’s cold you stoke the fire with your bruised tongue  your hands all over my thighs your eyes, everywhere but you invent new languages in things left unsaid  quiescence falls between us an alarming tranquility that you […]

West Virginia natives drive the 2nd class state highways hellbenttwisted curled asphalt counter-graded blind curvesserpentine treachery downhillout of forested mountains into valley sinks kamikaze deer lurk at dawn at dusk invisibleour stretch of Smoot-Dawson is death alleythree persons killed in two years ramming trees and fences on curves at 50 mphand a deer totals my farm helper’s caron […]

My life as a fallen star Maybe it was the way the light worked its way into everything when you were too young to work out the dark from the not-so-dark. The way even your father’s pain glowed some nights. A tree could only take you so far up, and it always hurt on the […]

Angelo Colavita lives and writes in Philadelphia, where he serves as Founding Editor of Empty Set Press and Associate Editor at Occulum Journal. He is the author of two chapbooks of poetry, Flowersonnets (2018) and Heroines (2017), as well as a full-length epic poem, Nazareth (forthcoming, Apep Publications). His work has appeared in The Shoutflower, Wildness […]

Intro Within you  lies a divine message.  A cryptic psalm. Would you recoil  if you heard your  omniscient song?  Would you question your sanity? Would you deny the source?  Would you remain silent?  Better yet,  what if your purpose is to decipher that prescient hymn?   I’m not trying to convince you of anything. Seriously,  all […]