5 poems by 5 poets

illustrations by palomine studios and penmarq studios

before by manfred corrington sternwall we have all been here before we have walked along this shore we have walked down these same streets in this same rain and fog and sleet from this tree we have been hanged often and risen all from this same coffin watched this same screaming face beneath our yellow eyes and tearing teeth we have run from these same guns to these same full moons and rising suns flown across the same dark clouds and never spoken our name aloud beneath these windows we will wait our dreadful lusts to finally sate we have waited here before boats burned to ashes on an alien shore poem by ashford wallace cordere the avuncular peregrinations of the pausanian beribbon the corroded demesne of the embolic but the forensic-minded gardener seizes the opportunity to froth this is an old planet and has been inhabited too long by the cartelized dominicans of the kinetic inquisition whose random macaques have forgotten their birthright let us then resolve our torpid feuds before the last bright roundelay has been assimilated we have watched the shadows creep across the softball field and all too tenderly forgotten the cauterized cheese omelettes of the deracinated night by mary crow fogg night, the night has always been my best my only friend,my true love, no, let me rephrase that, after all, we are here to tell the truth as best we can i know you insist that such efforts are without meaning, where were we, oh yes, in the night, in the "middle of the night", a phrase not as commonly used as it used to be i wonder why that is what can it mean? by s r ford the ketchup stain on the foulard of the last champion of civilization better than any twenty volumes on the loss of the mimetic tradition sounds the trumpet of an age without trumpets i warned him repeatedly that the angry whopper is not an enemy to be despised but he thought twenty five centuries of slowly accreting revelations of words forgotten describing sensations no longer petrified would stand at the gate against eight billion fun-loving primates i salute you, sir for fighting the good fight as your glasses slide down your nose forever... every child should sing by corinne delmonico people are fucked up i'm sorry, but they are they should be good but they are not all this racism,sexism and homophobia what's the big idea? and capitalism! that's the worst of all that's the cause of the whole mess and religion too no letting religion off the hook if i was in charge i wouldn't stand for any of it it would all have to go just like that no ifs ands or buts and no sniveling excuses and if someone has the bright idea to get up and say well without racism sexism and homophobia what are we supposed to do for excitement? or somebody else says what? with no capitalism and we can't go shopping i mean what the fuck? or, if there's no religion what should i get dressed up for? i like to get dressed up on sunday thank you very much i will stand my ground and tell them to just deal with it because every chlld should sing.