Brinkwomanship - Leontia Flynn

When they come for you no bigger than a piece of fruit,

weighing no more and no less than a water biscuit,

this will be my excuse:

that I hoped you were just testing yourself

as I might subtly and irresistibly

poke at a sensitive tooth. That is, not morbidly,

but out of a curiosity

to locate the exact, minute, sensory transition -- between

merely knowing the definition

of pain, and knowing the meaning.

Semi Semi Dash - Jillian Weise

The last time I saw Big Logos he was walking

to the Quantum Physics Store to buy magnets.

He told me his intentions. He was wearing

a jumpsuit with frayed cuffs. I thought the cuffs

got that way from him rubbing them against

his lips but he said they got that way

with age. We had two more blocks to walk.

“Once I do this, what are you going to do?”

he asked. “I wish you wouldn’t do it,” I said.

Big Logos bought the magnets and a crane

delivered them to his house. After he built

the 900-megahertz superconductor, I couldn’t go

to his house anymore because I have all kinds

of metal in my body. I think if you love someone,

you shouldn’t do that, build something like that,

on purpose, right in front of them.

Untitled - Nayyirah Waheed

do not

put

your hand

in the mouth of loneliness.

its teeth are soft

but it will scar you for life.

-- do not be seduced by the lonely ones

Being in Love - Marvin Bell

with someone who is not in love with

you, you understand my predicament.

Being in love with you, who are not

in love with me, you understand my dilemma.

Being in love with your being in love

with me, which you are not, you understand

the difficulty. Being in love with your

being, you can well imagine how hard it is.

Being in love with your being you,

no matter you are not your being being in

love with me, you can appreciate and pity

being in love with you. Being in love

with someone who is not in love, you know

all about being in love when being in love

is being in love with someone who is not

in love being with you, which is

being in love, which you know only too well,

Love, being in love with being in love.

What I Learned from My Mother - Julia Kasdorf

I learned from my mother how to love

the living, to have plenty of vases on hand

in case you have to rush to the hospital

with peonies cut from the lawn, black ants

still stuck to the buds. I learned to save jars

large enough to hold fruit salad for a whole

grieving household, to cube home-canned pears

and peaches, to slice through maroon grape skins

and flick out the sexual seeds with a knife point.

I learned to attend viewings even if I didn’t know

the deceased, to press the moist hands

of the living, to look in their eyes and offer

sympathy, as though I understood loss even then.

I learned that whatever we say means nothing,

what anyone will remember is that we came.

I learned to believe I had the power to ease

awful pains materially like an angel.

Like a doctor, I learned to create

from another’s suffering my own usefulness, and once

you know how to do this, you can never refuse.

To every house you enter, you must offer

healing: a chocolate cake you baked yourself,

the blessing of your voice, your chaste touch.

"For some there is no music" - Henry Rollins

For some there is no music

No lights

No fire

No untamed madness that breathes life

There is work

Anguish

Frustration

Rage

Despair

A dullness that rings like wooden thunder

Icarus in Love. - Unknown

I loved you as

Icarus loved

The sun –

Too close,

Too much.

On An Unsociable Family - Elizabeth Hands

O what a strange parcel of creatures are we,

Scarce ever to quarrel, or even agree;

We all are alone, though at home altogether,

Except to the fire constrained by the weather;

Then one says, ‘’Tis cold’, which we all of us know,

And with unanimity answer, ‘’Tis so’:

With shrugs and with shivers all look at the fire,

And shuffle ourselves and our chairs a bit nigher;

Then quickly, preceded by silence profound,

A yawn epidemical catches around:

Like social companions we never fall out,

Nor ever care what one another’s about;

To comfort each other is never our plan,

For to please ourselves, truly, is more than we can.