Submitted by Joel Quiggle  

             
                    Title: "Hell"                               Title: "Rapture"                 
 

Submitted by Todd Bennett

Patty’s Little Helpers: Billy’s Little Friends

Up early in the morning heading off to work
Billy says “see you later, help mommy cook the pork”
Patty zips through the morning, kids are off at school
She tours the mall, everything is looking really cool
Heads for the market, trying to remember
What she’s there for, oh yea – pork
She hopes it will be tender
He doesn’t ask for much
Why does that red light
Look like a strange kaleidoscope
Guess we must be getting low on diet pills
Got to stop at the doctors to get some refills
Meanwhile Billy is slinging iron and steel
That’s burning up his skin
He runs it up the building
Heads down and up again
Wondering why? The other guys
Are slowing down so soon
It isn’t even noon
Five more hours here in the sun
A two hour drive home
It is so damn much fun
Sure hope Patty picked up
The kids and the pills
I’ve got to get home
Cut the grass, pull the weeds
Sure hope the pork is tender

By: Patricia Geis

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Dreamscapes: Hidden Light

Gateway to Eden

The sirens are wailing
Oh how I hate that noise
Someone has been hurt
I feel their pain
Somehow, it is more vivid
I wipe the sweat from my brow
The sweat is bright red
The pain subsides
The sirens are silent
My family weeps
There are beautiful flowers
They smell so sweet
I see a bridge
I cross over it
My mother, son and daughter
Meet me on the other side
They take my hands and say
“We will walk with you
The rest of the way”
In the distance I see
Nana, dad, my grandparents,
Sister, aunts, uncles,
Cousins and friends,
Who I have missed
They all look so beautiful
I look back
I can no longer see
The bridge I just crossed
I want to tell the others
Who I have left behind
“Please don’t cry for me
We will meet again someday
At the Gateway to Eden”

By: Patricia Geis

On the Back of a Photograph
by Joseph Lockard 

Blue scripted motherly letters
meaning so much.
          Centerfold,
grabbing the onlooker in years future.

White encompass its world
trapping Kodak,
Do not copy.

A 3x5 universe tells a mini tale,
encapsulating the past on its back.

          Name
          Age
          School year
          Date
 

Smokey cafe.  
by Larissa R. Goodman

Cigarettes free floating in mid air...
jazzy notes echoed in background noises.
it's silent as if one is listening to rain
thats when you step on stage...
and your silhouette caught my eye.
heart racing but i'm fine.
your words traveled around the room
but it was felt most in my mind
still in deep thought
counting each breath as you talk.
interrupted by cool snapping
and yet still...lost in your illusion.
Did they feel what I felt in me?
Your image disappeared
and I slowly sipped my tea,
while I replayed your poem,
dedicated to me.
 

The Return
by Valerie Lute 

The first thing I noticed
when I entered the door
was the prevalent scent,
country apple and spice,
I had never noticed before. 

The rooms had changed sizes
while I was away,
now bigger and emptier
and brighter although,
as the rooms had got lighter
the wood cupboards had darkened
into the rich color
of a black cup of coffee
so deep that I'm sure
if I had stared into one
I would have been lost
and never returned.
 
The bathroom's sponge painted spots
had got up and moved
like they had held a square dance
and just do-sa-doed
but halted right where they were
when I entered the room,
all mixed up
but not knowing what else to do.

The only constant
was the tiny closet space
that now seemed unfamiliar
like I had only seen it once
in a dream a long time before
but completely forgotten
until I had opened the door.
I blow around like a ghost
in this strange house
that as it entices,
cannot keep me in the door.

I Don't Know
by Marissa Carney

"I don't know" has infiltrated every part
of me, taken over, folded itself into the cracks in my brain
filmed my eyes and
wrapped itself around my tongue

Automatic answers
to flashcard questions
            How do you feel
                        I don't know
            What do you feel
                        I don't know
a thoughtless response
that keeps me safe

"I don't know" is the gray area, my home base,
the bay compared to the ocean

I'm afraid to meet the waves    

My Love is Simple....
by Marissa Carney

I tell you I love you
          but you don't have to wear that like chains around         
                     your wrists,
          it doesn't tie you to me,
          it's not something you need to break free from.
          it's not a weapon.

Loving you
          doesn't mean you have to love me back but
          it doesn't mean you can't. 
          it doesn't make you an icon to worship
          or a standard of perfection to uphold.   

I say I love you
          and that's all it means
          purely, wholly, simply
          it's that easy.

The girl without a face
by Sam Yeager

 I want to get inside myself.
Find the map to a better tomorrow
and pull out my true identity
like a butterfly breaking through the cocoon,
then fluttering its wings,
learning to soar past the desolate areas of dreams,
reveal the beauty I can become.
If only one could hear
the whisper of my wings,
Listen to my call for amity

It's a torturous fate,
to be a prisoner of my own desires.
Lost in the thoughts
that cloud my judgment.
Unable to see the next sunny day.
Wondering,
when the day comes
to take my last breath,
will I finally find my face?

I'm the girl without a face.
This is the mask of the unknown.
You can't see the reality of my existence.
I'm just another face to you.
You didn't care enough to notice
that I'm the girl without a face.

There's so much more to me.
Beneath this meaningless figure,
I long for someone to listen,
to realize I have something to say
and need more than a pathetic walk by
without a second thought
that I could be worth it,
more than a glance,
a stare straight through me.
If only you would try.
Open your eyes to more than what you see,
and find me, waiting
or forever loose me to the forlorn.

Won't anyone notice
there is something about me
that just doesn't seem right,
that I could be better than you think
and let me know I'm not forgotten.
Let this be the last night I'm invisible.

Don't talk to me one on one,
then forget I'm next to you
once there's more than us.
Give me the time of my life for once
then ignore me looking at you if you wish,
at least I'll have my one good day.
Not asking for commitment,
Just a chance for a better tomorrow.
Let the possibility be known,
so that this feeling of loneliness will fade.
Just a day of recognition is all I ask.
A simple moment of acceptance.
Give me hope to let me know
That I'll wake up on the other side of things
And have a better tomorrow.

Losing Control
by Sam Yeager

There's something wrong with us...
Seems like we've always had something wrong
We didn't start for the right reasons
We didn't stay for the right reasons
And I feel like leaving for what seems like the wrong reasons.
 

Worried,
too much is working against us
I'm crumbling under the pressure
Not sure if I can take it
We've been through so much
Handled ourselves alright
But how much longer can we go on like this?

Contemplation,
Between desire and logic.
Caught up in the emotions.
Mixed up instructions,
leading me in opposite directions.
confusing one path with another;
unsure where to go next.
so often I'm lost in my thoughts,
wondering what is right and what is wrong,
which will lead me to the utmost happiness.

uncertainty seems to be the enemy
loosing me in my dreams
wishing I could find the right ones
and see the door to open next
endless possibilities
pile up in my lap
cluttering my mind
loosing control of myself
impulses driving my actions
whims taking over
before calculated approaches can be configured
logical decisions to be made
but there's no time
no more room to decide
too much in the way
blocking my entrance into tranquility

I've lost myself under the pressure
Loosing grip of reality
And falling into despair

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