Skull

By Katelyn Weingart

Silence,


Nothing comes from the decayed mouth


Of this bony bodiless creature


Stripped of dignity.

 



Empty holes for eyes seem to stare eternally upwards


As if regretting a past event,


And somehow knowing it’s too late


To redo.


Uncontrollably voiceless,


It rests as a reminder


To all


Of our inexorable destiny.

 



Yellow chipped teeth forever lie


In a forced smile,

 



His true


Emotion

Trapped inside.

The Poem About the Object in the Bag

By Paul Roever

Bleached yellowed teeth,
Looking strangely separated from the rest.
An arrowhead-shaped gap, where the nose should be.
And finally, two apricot-sized holes,
That once were a means of drinking in the world’s sights and colors.
All of these things comprise the skull in front of me.

It is a strange thought,
That this grotesque, gleaming piece of bone,
Was once a regular person like me.
Perhaps that is because a skull is oft associated with horrors,
And death.

There is something about the toothy grin,
And the detached way it stares into nowhere
That makes it inhuman,
And yet,
We know it was human.

The Gentle Roar of the Heater

By Paul Roever

Relaxing on the heater,
My blanket in great folds
All around me.
I hear the gentle roar of the heater,
And I smile, content.
My dog, curled up next to me,
Like a golden carpet, is breathing steadily.
With a gentle shift of my legs,
A waft of air escapes from the blanket,
And my dog’s ears flick.
Minutes later, my eyes are drawn
Back to the pages I had been reading, and
I reenter the world so different from mine.

Dive Into Peace

By Alex Menell

Dive.
A rush of water
Surrounds me,
Like a blanket.

Kick.
I swim deeper.
Down.
I feel at peace as my mind
Wanders in silence.

I wait.
A sound passes,
Water rushes at me.

A shadow,
A shimmer,
A scale.

Little fins.
“A fish, that’s all.”

Yet I return to the surface,
And rejoice as I take a breath.

And return…

He Lies Here

By Jacob Olian

I rest in my damp residence
Beneath the treads of others.
My flesh is gone
And the appearance
Of my youth
Decaying.

I stare at the soggy brown
Around me.
And I cannot move
For my muscles are gone.
And so is my sprit
And dignity.

In honor
I lie.
I lie to myself
For I
Am dead.

The Horizon

By Jordan Stone

One line
Spiraling towards infinity
The Horizon
Slices the sky and water.
Equal Parts
Only,
Truly opposite
Yin-Yang.
My Cries for help
Blow back into my face.
Lightning shoots the light out of the sea.
I wait,

Nothing

Fear huddles so close
I can only wish
My mind teases me
About appears,
How do I know.
I swim for a while
The metal whispers in my ear

You’re Safe.

Want

By Hunter Brown

Am I unnoticed?
It didn’t seem that way
Do you just not say a thing?

I know
But you don’t know
That I know

Is the smile a taunt
Or is it play?
I love that smile, oh the beauty of it.
That smile has been good to me.

It’s not like you to lie
But I see it in your eyes
You just don’t tell the whole truth.
The messages had me contemplating
It was good news

The lie, the one that ripped my heart
And tossed it aside
That one, oh yes, that one,
That had me crippled for days.

Luckily, that’s just words
Throw around some words
See if I care.

I figured you out.
Your icy eyes hold honesty
But what happens now?
Are you just waiting?


For me?