Poetry

Two Sides of the Same Coin—Rose Menyon Heflin

Poetry Issue #7: Mental Health April 15, 2021 Two Sides of the Same Coin by Rose Menyon Heflin Two Sides of the Same Coin: An Obsessive-Compulsive’s Take on the Pandemic Heads: The Obsessive-Compulsive’s Nightmare and the Therapist’s Revenge This coronavirus-induced shortage of disinfecting products is driving me out of my obsessive-compulsive mind, as all the while, I imagine my old therapist at the specialist mental institution sitting at her desk in her shared office thinking about the lack of Clorox Wipes, the lack of Lysol, and me and ...

City Sidewalk, Christmas Eve 2020—Mark Blickley

Poetry Issue #7: Mental Health April 15, 2021 City Sidewalk, Christmas Eve 2020 by Mark Blickley City Sidewalk, Christmas Eve 2020 In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing About the dark times. -Bertolt Brecht Do my squeaks and squeals sound like frightened cries of hopeful breaths crushed inside a fabric of society that brings exhaled warmth to my facing known yet unseen dangers as I squat before an empty street of holiday cheer ...

Princess of Wales—Lily Gavazov

Poetry Issue #7: Mental Health April 15, 2021 Princess of Wales by Lily Gavazov Princess of Wales My father used to tell me— because she died almost ++++++++++++++exactly three months before I was born— +++++++++++part of her soul transferred to me. Maybe it was destiny I inherit it from her. The unrelenting quest for perfection. Methods— ++++++increasingly messy. Her puddings. My candy wrappers +++++++++++++++++++++stashed. Delicacies, ++++++commodities funnel down gullets. Palace bathrooms, apartment lavatories. A body folds over: hand tunnels into mouth, another nudges ++++++++++underneath rib cage. My synthetic sapphire ring caught between two cliffs— suspended into +++++++++never enough. In ...

Two Poems—Andrew P. Dillon

Poetry Issue #7: Mental Health April 15, 2021 Two Poems by Andrew P. Dillon From The Shadow (5) Body my house my horse my hound what will I do when you are fallen -May Swenson When craning my neck, vertebrae rose like stegosaurus plates— +++++++++++++++++++++++maybe a primal defense provoked by my reptile brain. Arms & legs also of the bird people, +++++++++++++++++++++++if I had to escape my only hope was to out-run the lions taking stock. I had to grow +++++++++++++++++++++++my bear, throw my body to the ...

Mother and Mind—James B. Nicola

Poetry Issue #7: Mental Health April 15, 2021 Mother and Mind by James B. Nicola Mother and Mind At first she minds you but you do not know. Then she minds you and you do not mind Until the day she minds you and you mind. Then she minds you so that you don’t know She’s minding you, she thinks. You know, and mind. She doesn’t know you know or doesn’t mind Until the day she knows and starts to mind. Then she ...

Narrow Corner, Carpinteria Beach—Susan Eyre Coppock

Poetry Issue #7: Mental Health April 15, 2021 Narrow Corner, Carpinteria Beach by Susan Eyre Coppock Narrow Corner, Carpinteria Beach White house, aqua shutters. There Aunt Selena wears a flowered rayon dress, a field of blooms swaying as she walks. There the looming portrait of her sure-eyed father stares out at the room steering his sailing boat diagonally to Catalina Island. Mustached, in a brimmed straw hat, turning the wooden wheel, he muscles the family along. There Uncle Wilfred sits in his chair fingering his black bolo tie, ...

Two Poems—Lanette Sweeney

Poetry Issue #7: Mental Health April 15, 2021 Two Poems by Lanette Sweeney What I Should Have Said After my wedding, you relapsed, came home from detox shaky, called to seek my advice. Wary of enabling you, or enraging my weary wife, I focused on logistics, said your girlfriend and daughter could stay with me, said it seemed unfair for them to be made homeless by your failure to stay clean. Ever reasonable, you agreed this made sense, heard this as a pass, knew they’d be safe, so left them–and ...

monochrome—Kelsey Day

Poetry Issue #7: Mental Health April 15, 2021 monochrome by Kelsey Day monochrome it starts with the bed / crosscurrents, tidelines / my wrists nailed to the pillow / strangled under the curtains / i am / too feeble to turn on the lights / the laundry sweats in the hamper / rubber bands snap, unsnap / my body becomes aware that it is a body / it knocks on the window / and turns on its side / ...

Grace and Grit—Emily Boshkoff

Poetry Issue #7: Mental Health April 15, 2021 Grace and Grit by Emily Boshkoff Grace and Grit I. ++++Twelve That first time, I did not recognize my illness as “other.” It was inevitable, like getting taller, or falling in love. A lovely despair descended like a black-velvet envelope, not unlike the first hit of a drug, deliciously dangerous. Like tasting a rich, foreign dessert for the first time, I let it dissolve on my tongue with a mixture of terror and longing. II. ...

Poetry Issue #7: Mental Health April 15th, 2021 April 15th, 2021 Poetry Letter from the Poetry Editor: The Search for Peace monochrome | Kelsey Day What I Should Have Said and The Body’s Expression | Lanette Sweeney Mother and Mind | James B. Nicola Princess of Wales | Lily Gavazov From The Shadow (5) and Blood Clot: Coda | Andrew P. Dillon Narrow Corner, Carpinteria Beach | Susan Eyre Coppock City Sidewalk, Christmas Eve 2020 | Mark Blickley Two Sides of the Same ...