By Laura Ditto I’m sure you must have heard  of many cowboy men—  Billy the Kid and Buffalo Bill—  but this ain’t about all them.  See, I doubt you know  that among the plains,  a mighty girl once roamed  with skill about the reins.  In fiesty herds of cattle  she always stood her ground  and fired a blazing pistol  with a deafening sound.    Yes, it is she—  who rangers never slew—  the fearsome, frightening, fighting:  the Mighty Wrangler Sue.    They say she could mend clothes,  while riding cross the range,  yodeling into the night  so folks all called her strange.    She liked to walk in trousers,  and…

By Kenneth A Hughes It’s wave after crashing wave  Over the walls and spreading wetting  Filling every space and bursting past  Rippling with vibrations  Pulsating emanating generating pumping out  Overwhelming all encompassing  Reverberating releasing relays    Splashing forth and ever present  Nothing but this is important to remember  Always will and will be  Captivated appreciated celebrated  Flowing edges onward pouring  Steadily gaining maintaining the volume    Breathe it in and breathe it out  It’s all we are and all we need  As is the way of the stars  Grow like a flower  Share this Love   Love eternally  Love 

By Kenneth A. Hughes Walking through the values you entered unto the world/  Fraught with nought nary a faerie, “Not Fair He!”   These globs of stops are concluding a protruding confusing intrusive elusive notion current on the currents in motion on the Bering Sea portion of the Pacific Ocean/  Land meets man, meats man & plans stands for days in ways that’s it’s laid out like gout, stout as a shout/  This gory “Glory & hallelujah” in collusion to Illusion; losing to a lost paradise parable parked between antiquated ideas flayed and displayed in an intricate array  The main rage on the stage is parading cascading triumvirate hues/  Stoned and…

By Laura Ditto I’m chased into a waltz by Whitman,  while Wilde hounds my head.  Their words live on in memory,  even when they are long dead.    As I sit in stupor,  and writing wracks my brain,  I remember those who came before,  and begin to feel quite sane.    Sappho taught me how to love,  Poe showed me my grief,  Service gifted nature,  and they all gave me relief.    I live by words unspoken  and leave my own to pages.  Perhaps if someone finds them,  they too will live for ages.   If Homer told traditions,  and Shakespeare defined play,  then words create beginnings  that never shall decay. …

By Pansy Alakayak Thank you snow, evolving is your presence,  You and Mother Earth – what an essence.  Snowflake and Snowshoe, wholly and true  Hoarfrost on elders heads, oh yes they grew.  Ancient dog musher and snowmachines too,  What would they do without you!  Climate change ravage, affecting all of you.  Please don’t leave us, forever be true!  Snow forever, you are pure and white.  Please continue to come in your time.  You are amazing and beautiful,  In your everlasting time. 

By Miles Dennis I crushed my fingers stacking wood.  Cut my fingers on parking-lot glass.  Broken arms, been snapped by ropes, and burned by countless careless touches of the stove.  I cursed and cried each as I waited for them to fade.  It is different now, I can’t find it now. It is everywhere, except when I look for it, when it is nowhere.   The half-dead trees outside are wrong, they won’t bear leaves this spring. The half-melted streets are wrong too, they will never melt out, and I think it’s inside somewhere. I can’t find it.  The East is wrong too, the sun won’t come up in the morning.…

By Jordan Hales I am the villain, and I will never win. My words are laced with venom. My ambition stings. I am never wrong, nor am I right. Vanity is worn on my iron sleeve. Viridian is my color. Black is my heart. Silver are the swords that stay at my side. I am the villain, and when you fall, I triumph. I taunt. I tear. I am only a reflection. I burn, you blunder. Betrayal is a given—by you, by me. I will love you. I will leave you, and you will watch me walk away. The ground burns in my footprints. Power blazes within me, but not…