EPTI thought I'd share a few of the poems from the March issue.
"On The Street"
by Julia Vinograd
I'm not here, don't look at me.
Don't scream when your children look at me,
do you think bad dreams are contagious?
Do you think I'll breathe bad luck on your children?
Suppose you'd spent the afternoon
shining in your lover's bed
and then brought him home to meet your parents
and they screamed
"Don't touch that, you don't know where it's been!"
You can't see me,
I'm just a crack in your contact lens;
I'm just a crack in your mirror.
My hands are dirty,
I've got your shadow under my fingernails,
I can't wash it out.
I've got the shakes,
my own skin isn't speaking to me
and I'm not speaking to you.
I'm not here, I have no past,
no memories, no name, not allowed.
So I eat your memories like garbage,
all your buried broken promises
and the bad dreams you forget
till you see me.
Till you don't see me.
I'm not here.
"Transcendence"
by Sue Ellen Pector
In surges and torrents it is hurled at me
that incessant scolding
"failure failure failure"
until I trust no one ever except
long lost loyal beloveds
who saw in me
a light
an innate glow
that still might
transcend the tirades of conformity.
While others - as if in lockstep -
see round holes rejecting
my square pegs
this body this self this Sue
soars, floats, sings.
"a desert with no oasis"
by Randy Fingland
the new ploy
seems to be
to me
put the poor
on the run
keep them
without possibility
of a real home
of their own
to come back to
nowhere to be
on/in/under
welcome:
yet still within
native geographical
boundaries
new refugees
set to wander
unprotected
in the country
of their nativity,
in this case the U.S.A.
