Poetry: A Simple Puzzle by Jaiden A

Can you solve me?
I may look simple,
as simple as dull words on a piece of paper.

Can you find my manual?
Will your eyes feast upon the supposed guide
that is calling for you to solve me?

Can you concentrate enough for your mind to cut into my tangled mess?
Because I am more than words lying lifelessly on paper,
more than syllables to be skimmed over.

I gleam and glow,
twinkling like stars in the abyss,
blazing past the void of creative dullness,
calling out to you, begging you to see the truth that glares brightly back.

I resonate with the tongue,
read me and I can gently be sung,
for I am a simple game that waits for none,

I breathe the word complexity,
I thrive off seeing you scratch your head,
rub your eyes, and yawn as you think about me,
as days later you beg me to reveal my secrets.

My work is done,
when you finally see me for what I am;

An endless game of cat and mouse.

Poetry: Moon In House by Nina Anin

I moved the moon into my old house last night
The people are there, glistening bare backs steeped in strange sounds
with boxes of antiques pulled out of place
from the ships that the residents of the locket
had committed to, moving boxes along the pier
spices scattered in their pigtails
The moon has seen everything, can teach you
return to the moon in the house
miss the people who have sailed, out
found livelier planets, leave behind newcomers
Up on the moor, Chang'er wishes the visionaries would learn again
all the ways she laughs too, would caress
more than the runaways at the subway

Poetry: The Bleeding Scream by Afia Faiza Khan

 The screams of the bleeding voice,

Echoes throbbing, seems to be no choice.

She yelled, "Save me! I can't bear!"

Loud grief, the crowds didn't hear.

Dominating hush, extended bruises:

Hopeless limbs against abuses. 

Tears dried up yet blood still flows,

Breaking the door, came the death blow.

After each thump, her fate cries,

The horrible thud; silence never lies.

Why are we blind until she lost?

Our sight demands a life's cost?!

Why are we deaf until she dumbs?

Do we desire her to numb!?

Beasts as humans or humans as beasts?

Oh, awful souls spare the hallowed at least!

Spare the hallowed at least...

Poetry: Pink vs Yellow by Nina Anin

On Wednesday the bus ride was full of ladies in pink

elephants in pink

A girl in yellow crashed through the roof. No pink, like, say

a lemon in a bouquet of roses, vomiting over the golden floors.

The King would faint.

The economy crashed, and you got to wear pink, the ladies in pink say.

New billboard has new commitments: 

coping in pink, screaming in pink, weeping in pink

You could, the girl in yellow says.

Yellow was later designated public enemy No.1,

ladies in pink began to advocate for

old metaphors & overused colors & cleanliness 

the rest of Dvorak's symphonies looked on doubtfully.

On Thursday the girl in yellow tripped down the stairs

On Thursday the ladies in pink died of a heart attack

Memoir: You Are Not Kurt Cobain by Mich

Note: You Are Not Kurt Cobain contains graphic descriptions of suicidal ideation. Please keep any possible triggers in mind before reading this memoir.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide, please reach out for help. The suicide hotline for the USA is 800-273-8255. Find other suicide hotlines around the world here: International Suicide Hotlines

You are loved, and your life is worth living. Even if it's hard to believe right now, things truly can and will get better. Stay strong, and stay safe.

 If you'd like, you can read the memoir here: https://oneeyedbastardfrog.neocities.org/youarenotkurtcobain.html

Photography: Bee by Anonymous

 

Poetry: transient form by Srishti Pandey

my eyes, darkness receptors, seem to freeze
my cheeks, cling to the hollow skull, seem to burn 

my hair is dry and rusted, and waiting
to be yanked out of the swamp (brown matter) 

by my fingers - short, stubby, charred tips
everything is slightly singed by my touch 

sweat, that lines my neck, is sliding to evaporate
my shoulders are bent forward; undue burden 

my arms are bent inward; shelter self
deflating chest, bleak from dissipating heat 

my pelvis aches from smoldering flowing iron
and my gut from churning acid 

my knees are covered by cracks, with ice filling in
filling up the weakening lengths, splitting them 

splinters, coiled in a scimitar; shelter from self
calves distorted by spasms, ankles turn to stone 

it is all - fractured pipes and broken ceramic
tracing back their path, from my sinking toes 

through graying tissues. crumbling
it is all - condensate and plasma. exploding 

mine is another cursed mortal form
weathered away by the changing seasons 

dwindling to dust // returning to earth

Photography: In The Dark by Kat Le Blanc

 

Photography: Bananas and Cream by Adrielle Lanae

 

Poetry: Cassette by Jiah B

the midnight sun cracked 

open the sky in half.

the spent days oozing out of the crevices 

like smothering honey; scorching liquid amethyst 

that blisters skin raw and stops air tight.

memories weren't what they were called anymore, but

a cassette that played itself every second over and 

i was too much

of a masochist to press pause, for

i would rather evaporate in the heat of the tangible ugly 

than learn what it feels like to make brand news.

the window deluded me into comfort, made me sit 

on the sill and bask in the poisonous wind,

for the stars were pretty that night; pretty selfish.

didn't want to be looked at so asked the clouds

to kiss them through the light year,

like specks of aurelia smeared over velvet,

protected by a veil.

but the same melted into a repulsive canvas 

of tar the very next 

second because i remembered

everything that glitters is not gold.

music flowed out of the player and onto the floor

in a shiny puddle, blinding.

making me wonder where all the people who would

want to write a song about me went.

did they collide? 

burst into new galaxies before i

even had the chance to feel their skin;

kiss them enamored under the moon?

it suddenly feels like a different dimension,

and i'm not a part of it anymore.

it scared me.

how it morphed right before my eyes.

my own demise; a constellation on fire

the sun fluidizing away into another nebula

far away from mine.

it happened then and there

but all i did was sit and 

stare beyond myself, into the magnetic nothingness, 

looked at the stars one last time before closing the window

and drawing the curtains shut.

Photography: Urban Inferno by Adrielle Lanae