Special Feature, Me Too SeriesJoanna ValenteLeah Mueller, poetry, special feature, me too

Leah Mueller: Don't Get Too Comfortable

Special Feature, Me Too SeriesJoanna ValenteLeah Mueller, poetry, special feature, me too
Leah Mueller: Don't Get Too Comfortable
ivy-law-490194-unsplash.jpg

VIPER

 

Repressed wrath is worse

than the kind that shows

teeth. It hides

under cartilage, conceals

 

sharpness behind gums. Suddenly,

 

the swollen jaws open. You might

be sitting quietly in traffic,

eating ordinary food, staring

 

at nothing. Wrath doesn't care,

as long as you're distracted.

 

Sneak assault thrusts hard

into your connective tissue,

ejaculates within your bones:

 

you are no longer connected

to anything, only floating in

pain with no foundation.

 

Wrath an Old Testament god,

not caring who it flattens.

Everything an obstacle, and you

didn't move fast enough.

 

Somebody else's divorce.

Bankruptcy or a bad heart valve.

 

Shame and hatred compressed

into random bullets. One of them

happened to hit you in the head.

 

Don't cry: misfortune

happens to everyone. Stay

quiet, position yourself

differently next time. Check

the exits before the movie begins.

Enjoy the show, but

don't get too comfortable.

 

Leah Mueller is an indie writer from Tacoma, Washington. She is the author of two chapbooks, “Queen of Dorksville” (Crisis Chronicles Press) and “Political Apnea” (Locofo Chaps) and three books, “Allergic to Everything”, (Writing Knights Press) “Beach Dweller Manifesto” (Writing Knights) and “The Underside of the Snake” (Red Ferret Press). Her work appears in Blunderbuss, Summerset Review, Outlook Springs, Crack the Spine, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, and other publications. She was a featured poet at the 2015 New York Poetry Festival, and a runner-up in the 2012 Wergle Flomp humor poetry contest.

Special FeatureJoanna Valentelana bella, special feature, poetry

Lana Bella: Dear Suki

A Pushcart nominee, Lana Bella is an author of two chapbooks, Under My Dark (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2016) and Adagio (Finishing Line Press, forthcoming), has had poetry and fiction featured with over 250 journals, California Quarterly, Chiron Review, Columbia Journal, Poetry Salzburg Review, Plainsongs, San Pedro River Review, The Writing Disorder, Third Wednesday, and elsewhere, among others. 

Lana divides her time between the US and the coastal town of Nha Trang, Vietnam, where she is a mom of two far-too-clever frolicsome imps. 

Special FeatureJoanna Valentelana bella, special feature, poetry
Lana Bella: Dear Suki
Special FeatureJoanna ValenteCatherine Esposito Prescott, special feature, poetry

Catherine Esposito Prescott: To Forgive Us Everything

Catherine Esposito Prescott is the author of the chapbooks Maria Sings (forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press) and The Living Ruin (Finishing Line Press).  Recent poems have appeared in Pleiades, Southern Poetry Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Poetry East, MiPOesias, and elsewhere.  A graduate of NYU’s MFA program in Creative Writing-Poetry, Catherine is cofounder and curator of the SWWIM reading series.  She lives in Miami Beach with her husband, two sons, and daughter.

Special FeatureJoanna ValenteCatherine Esposito Prescott, special feature, poetry
Catherine Esposito Prescott: To Forgive Us Everything
Special FeatureJoanna ValenteJames Croal Jackson, special feature, poetry

James Croal Jackson: Meanwhile, in Real Life

James Croal Jackson is the author of The Frayed Edge of Memory (Writing Knights Press, 2017). His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in FLAPPERHOUSE, Rust + Moth, The Bitter Oleander, and elsewhere. He edits The Mantle and is a former winner of the William Redding Memorial Poetry Contest. Find him in Columbus, Ohio or at jimjakk.com.
 

Special FeatureJoanna ValenteJames Croal Jackson, special feature, poetry
James Croal Jackson: Meanwhile, in Real Life
Me Too SeriesJoanna ValenteLois Roma-Deeley, me too, poetry

Lois Roma-Deeley: #MeToo Series

Lois Roma-Deeley's poetry collection, The Short List of Certainties, won the Jacopone da Todi Book Prize (Franciscan University Press, 2017). She is the author of three previous collections of poetry: Rules of Hunger, northSight and High Notes—a Paterson Poetry Prize Finalist. Roma-Deeley’s poems are featured in numerous literary journals and anthologies, nationally and internationally, such as Spillway, North Dakota Quarterly, Villanelles (Pocket Poet Series), Rabbit and many more.  Currently she serves as Associate Editor of Presence. www.loisroma-deeley.com/

Me Too SeriesJoanna ValenteLois Roma-Deeley, me too, poetry
Lois Roma-Deeley: #MeToo Series
Special FeatureJoanna ValenteJoshua Lindenbaum, poetry, special feature

Joshua Lindenbaum: Google Search

Joshua Lindenbaum’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in HEArt Online, Breadcrumbs, West Texas Literary Review, Typishly, Five2One Magazine, Silhouette Press, Mistake House, The Bangalore Review, 3Elements Review, and several other publications. He’s currently pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature at Binghamton University and will become a full-time professor despite a dismal job market. The pen has been his companion for quite some time, but it’s still waiting for him “to put a ring on it.” 

Special FeatureJoanna ValenteJoshua Lindenbaum, poetry, special feature
Joshua Lindenbaum: Google Search