By Evelyn Kwak I wake up just like any other dayThis used to bea special dayI get envious of thosewho carries the warmth of their birthdayWhen I step outside the roomI smell the sizzle of the miyeok-gukand I see my beautiful momwho reminds me howpeople utter that we are too much alikeI remember reading a … Continue reading Birthday
Scratches On My Cookware
By Poster Boy As I roll the stone I find the imprint of you,transgressions yet atoned,and trails of past truths. Framed upon my wall are pieces of my mind, choking on aerosoland the tears I could not find.I led myself to waters,filled pages up with markings.The mountains, I uncovered. But the songs - they came … Continue reading Scratches On My Cookware
Ten Poems
By Ken Gosse It’s Melting, Melting … God had more plans for the ark, once completed,but climate change melted the iceburg he needed. The Here and Now In the mood or in the need,our favorite time to do the deed. Uncoupleting Keep your couplets surreptitiousif you think your lover’s suspicious. Knoetry A lot of nonsense … Continue reading Ten Poems
Ceasefire
By Rizwan Akhtar The spaghetti sat simmering indifferently oil and red chili mangled the threaded massan Odor raked the air wind almost peppery made nostrils quiver,He stirred it as if turning onshe withdrew, nose chaffing like anchenes grown on strawberries, garlic scorched in the oilpaprika crackled like twigs on fire.“Too much!” she said,voice sharp as … Continue reading Ceasefire
Asphalt Cancer
By Craig Kirchner Last night I watched the sidewalk quiver,spasm as if caressed,bordered by tufts of neon moss,chameleon in green finesse.The trickle in the gutter,leftovers from a mint fresh rain,corroded bricks to urban silt,sloughed to sewers, to mud, to dust.Trees like plastic Hollywood, were cramped by raised cement.It seemed as if this camouflage,these row-house slabs … Continue reading Asphalt Cancer
Stormtroopers Advancing Under Glass
By Salvatore Difalco After my ship-in-a-bottle succumbedto self-engendered thunderstorms,I turned to war and fashioned a workcomposed of pheasant skulls and bones,some blackened with charcoal or blood,all gathered under a classic glass cloche.Battles and wars, battles and wars,that is how I approached this probeinto the darker country of man,ranging the skulls like gas masks,stitching feathers and … Continue reading Stormtroopers Advancing Under Glass
Memory Cells
By Luchang Zhu Are there two identical clouds in the sky?If not,why does this one feel familiar, like a cloud from my hometown returning unannounced?Are there two identical people on the planet?If not,why does your presence stir something in me, like B cells recognizing a second encounter?Are there two identical days in a life?If not,why … Continue reading Memory Cells
The Drift
By Dhaanvi Jaipuriar The tide isn’t coming in; it’s a slow hemorrhageleaking through the floorboards, a salt-crustcalcifying the mahogany until the room is a reefof everything you’ve tried to bury.You navigate a hallway of doors that openinto more hallways, each one tapering,smelling of damp cedar and the ozone-stinkof a storm that refuses to break.A sturgeon … Continue reading The Drift
Sunday Night
By Julia Vaughan Pizza or ThaiIndian or ChineseI don’t feel like cookingThe end ofA winter weekendLazyThe fire’s onBeach walked this morningWith beanies onA bracing bitter windSunday’s rugby’s on TVWatching the Newcastle KnightsFiercely defending against the Auckland WarriorsHot fresh popcorn for startersDeliciously coatedBaz’s recipe of TabascoCashew nut butter and hoisin saucePizza wins tonightAnd Woolies’ naughtyLoaded lemon-poppyseed … Continue reading Sunday Night
Before the Sea
By Muskan Singh A dark night,the edge of the sea—there sits a girl,drowned in a deep calm.Gazing at the open sky,with a quiet smileresting in her eyes.There is no fear of losing,no longing to gain—only a patiencelike the waves of the seashimmering within her.Even in the darkest nights,she continues to shinewith a lightof her own.
Academy of the Heart And Mind 