Passed the Bouncer’s Bar tonight
People kept coming in and looking
Pure white is first light
‘Pale horse pale rider’
The plane wings away toward heaven
The population explodes
Source: First lines of Lawrence Ferlinghetti poems.
Mark Young’s most recent book is Mineral Terpsichore, from gradient books of Finland. An e-book, The Holy Sonnets unDonne, has recently come out from Red Ceilings Press, & another e-book, For the Witches of Romania, is due out from Beard of Bees.
Source: In Watermelon Sugar, Richard Brautigan (Dell, 1968).
Lori Propheter has a master’s degree in English from Illinois State University, where she received a Sutherland fellowship. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in American Book Review, Prick of the Spindle, and Bone Bouquet.
1
and becoming a catholic
seems to be
the right thing to do
2
when I see a pope so committed
to the poor,
to peace,
to love,
I get high
3
see, god doesn’t mean
he’s not there
if you see a painting
on the wall,
there must be a god
4
you know I will be praying
for you
but I want you to pray
for you,
me, this crooked generation
5
it’s a world of god
money; I’m setting
up a pastoral plan of ghettos
so the elderly, they would begin
to dream again
Source: various articles from The Catholic Virginian newsletter (both online and in print).
Hannah Cohen lives in Virginia and is a MFA candidate at Queens University of Charlotte. She’s Poetry Editor of Firefly Magazine. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming from december, The Tishman Review, Public Pool, The Shallow Ends, and elsewhere. She tweets at @hcohenpoet.
PJ Wren is a scientist and writer from Kensington, Maryland. Her poems have appeared in The Lake, After the Pause, and Plum Tree Tavern.
1. Intel Committee Shows Fatally Dead. 2. Half of Senate Refuses Change, Invites Death. 3. Guantánamo Remains, Posing Reported. 4. Chair Seeks Return of Wife. 5. Protocol Bans Women. 6. Suspicious Senate Drops North Dakota. 7. Pipeline Leaks at President’s Home. 8. Supreme Court Votes for Hands Up Torture. 9. Climates Interrupt, Change Kills. 10. Citizens Shot For Bus Change. 11. Torture United Reports Civil Rights Man-Made. 12. CIA Kills Speaker, Seeks Video. 13. Oil Drilling Offered, Invites Corruption’s Lover. 14. Files Remain in NJ.
Source: 2/25/15 headlines on Democracy Now.
Margie Kivel lives in Rockport, Maine. Her work has been published in The Lampeter Review (Wales), A Taste of Ink, and Anthology of High Tide Poets in Midcoast Maine. Her poem, “Jail House Rock”, was the winner of the 2015 Photo Finish Contest in Iron Horse Review.