US – Foxglove Journal

Rumble Rumble – Joe Albanese

I thought I lost a thousand years,

turns out I was just blinking

What I thought a ruptured volcano

is just what I’ve missed in aching

Hanging out the window sill –

is even half of me worth saving?

I never made it to the church,

but held my faith in breaking

Why rebuild this house when it’s the land that’s cursed?

I hear it, I hear it, I hear it

I got nowhere by acting low –

even my shadow overheated

What’s a rhapsody within myself

when all I did was stay seated?

Forge anything and hope it grows

to shed a weight only Atlas knew

I calculate I’m nothing special

because entropy does what we already do

There’s a wave so big I can’t see its crest

But I feel it, I feel it, I feel it…

Joe Albanese is a writer from New Jersey. His work can be found in publications across the U.S. and in ten other countries. Joe’s novel, Caina (Mockingbird Lane Press), and his novella, Smash and Grab (Books to Go Now), were both published in 2018.

How I love – Joe Albanese

From your hope is how I hear you

Through your unabashed scars is how I feel you

Between each thought I always see you

And it’s in your flowing that I know you

The sacred and magic are born from you

For simple being, the world should thank you

In crowded streets I may have lost you

But with heart-star lantern, I’ll search for you

Although ghosts may sometimes haunt you

It’s because who wouldn’t live beside you?

From your laughter I cannot save you

But in tears I’d never have you

If it’s in the sunlight that I want you

Then it’s in its shadows I am with you

If all our lives I never reach you

Then let these words be how I love you.

October 25, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: creative, creativity, ghosts, hope, Joe Albanese, lantern, laughter, light, lives, love, magic, NJ, poem, Poetry, scars, senses, shadows, tears, thoughts, US, words, world, writing Leave a comment

The Rose Trees are in Bloom – Arlene Antoinette

Monday

Mother sits in her favorite armchair, peering through the picture windows onto her backyard garden. The rose trees are beginning to bloom, she calls to me. I’m in the kitchen, washing up last night’s dishes, scrubbing spills from the stove, sweeping and mopping the floor. I respond with a quick, that’s nice. She leaves her spot only for meals and bathroom breaks. Night falls; a veil of darkness obscures her precious flowers. I plant a light kiss on her cheek as I put her to bed.

Tuesday

The rose trees are beginning to bloom. Her words seem to dance across her lips. I’m busy loading the washing machine and unloading the dryer. I look up, but I don’t respond. Mother stands at the window like an expectant child on the night before her birthday.

Wednesday

Mother, are you finished dressing? Again, she’s standing by the back window, hands clasped together as if in prayer. Have you seen them? The roses are beginning to bloom! Her blouse hangs open; her hair’s undone. I walk over to her and place my hand on her forearm. Come with me mom, we’re running late for your appointment. I don’t bother to look out onto the garden; I’m busy calculating how long it will take me to finish getting her dressed.

Thursday

Okay mom. I’m off. Lunch is in the fridge. There’s a glass of coconut water on the table and if you need a snack there’s a granola bar in the cabinet. I should be back by dinner time.
Have you seen them?
Seen what?
The roses buds. The rose trees are beginning to bloom.
I know, I know. I’ll look at them when I get back. I have to go. Love you. I grab my purse and head out the door.

Thursday Evening

Mom, I’m home. Mom, I’m back. I open the fridge and retrieve a bottle of cold water. It’s 5:30, and her lunch is still there. Mom, where are you? Why haven’t you eaten? I walk through the house, glancing into her bedroom, the bathroom and the living room. Finally, I look out the back window. She’s there, sitting on the bench in her beloved garden. I retrieve her lunch from the fridge and head outside. Mom. She doesn’t respond. Mom, you must be starving. I lay my hand on her shoulder, there’s no response. Mom, mom! Are you alright? Mom say something! Mom! Mom!

Friday

The hospital’s ER is ice-cold. Pictures of children playing in fields adorn the walls.

Saturday

I call close friends and family. My hands shake as I dial each number.

Sunday

I stand at the window gazing out into the back yard. Yellow, pink and red roses adorn my mother’s garden. The roses are in full bloom

Arlene Antoinette is a poet of West Indian birth who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Brooklyn College and worked as an instructor with disabled individuals for many years. You may find additional work by Arlene at Foxglove Journal, Little Rose Magazine, I am not a silent Poet, Tuck Magazine, The Feminine Collective, The Open Mouse, Amaryllis Poetry, Boston Accent Lit, Sick Lit Magazine, Postcard Shorts, 50 Word Stories, The Ginger Collect, Neologism Poetry Journal and Your Daily Poem.

October 23, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: flash fiction, ProseTags: Arlene Antoinette, creative, creativity, family, fiction, flash, flowers, garden, house, life, love, nature, night, NY, Prose, roses, short, story, time, US, view, window, writing 2 Comments

Cabin life – John Grey

Dawn unfastens the point of being here –

a shimmering globe rotating –

newly acquired light and heat and air.

Quiet breakfast

then a walk

sipping the vin rose of the morning,

a feeling hastily translated

from the woman on my arm –

a ledge of sandstone,

a forest nook,

and time, a small favor

that we forget to ask.

We could be mistaken for dew

except we hold on longer.

Or hummingbirds,

buzzing, fluttering,

distancing ourselves from small talk

but embracing the hunger

of small unimportant lives.

Person to person,

tree to tree –

and a running stream of course –

running on this spot.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in Nebo, Euphony and Columbia Review with work upcoming in Leading Edge, Poetry East and Midwest Quarterly.

September 3, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: air, Australia, birds, creative, creativity, dawn, forest, heat, John Grey, life, light, movement, nature, poem, Poetry, running, senses, talk, time, US, walk, world, writing Leave a comment

Two Sisters, The Fourth Of July, 2008 – Eliza Spinna

Two weary goddesses on the hot concrete. We blast the crackly radio full volume.

I dance barefoot; my limbs are still unsure of themselves.

The summer asphalt sears my fleshy, uncallused feet. Rose bobs her head casually, coolly. The coolest.

I am seven and my sister reads comic books but as far as I am concerned my sister is the sole superhero

in this town. My hands are smudged blue with melting popsicle. A piece of pink

cotton candy is lodged between Rose’s two front teeth. I don’t think she knows herself better than anyone

else knows her. Thinking too hard, she says, is a recipe for disaster. She has a hole in her shorts.

One of the buttons on my yellow sundress has popped. At this age I am unsure of most things. Today,

I think, is like Sunday but instead America is God. I tell Rose this and she laughs like I said something

funny but I really do mean it. Patriotism and praying seem very similar to me. They both involve

reverence. Rose has begun to question God and America, but I am still young and Church is fun enough

and on Independence Day you get to see fireworks, and the simplicity of abiding by these rituals is

coherent in my seven year old mind. Other things I am already sure of: my sister is a fireball

that is hurtling towards the sun and I cannot wait to see how spectacular the explosion is.

Eliza Spinna is a Manhattan-based emerging poet and writer. She is a rising senior at Stuyvesant High School.

August 30, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: childhood, colours, creative, creativity, dance, Eliza Spinna, family, fireworks, memory, mind, NY, past, patriotism, poem, Poetry, radio, reverence, rituals, senses, sisters, summer, US, writing Leave a comment

Along the Gridley River – William Doreski

On the waterfall trail the moss

wigs with damp an intelligence

greater than ours. Painted

trillium spikes the roving eye

with rippled, blood-streaked petals.

We pause by the deepest pool

and watch the falls fall into it.

Trout? you speculate. No more

hooking fish by the lip. I broke

my fly rod years ago. Let the big

specimens die of old age,

as I plan to do when the light

thickens and the waterfalls freeze

and pharmaceuticals no longer

excite my favorite organs.

We enjoy the contrast of rock-

broken and still water, the swirl

of leaf decay icing the pool

like the world’s first birthday cake.

Nature’s always rebirthing itself

in a shrug of clichés. Brightly

ethered, it wings about us on fire

with floral imperatives. Leaning

on each other in the mist of flies,

we let the mood distinguish us

from the other forms of life.

Among them, only falling water

and maybe the painted trillium

seem mobile enough to track us

to our secret mutual lair.

William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He has published three critical studies and several collections of poetry. His work has appeared in many journals. He has taught writing and literature at Emerson, Goddard, Boston University, and Keene State College. His new poetry collection is A Black River, A Dark Fall.

August 23, 2018August 23, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: animals, birth, death, decay, elements, fauna, fish, flora, flowers, Gridley, life, light, nature, NH, poem, Poetry, pool, river, trail, US, waterfall, William Doreski, world Leave a comment

Reluctant Diver – Susan Richardson

I move toward the pool with delusions

of grace coursing through my muscles,

eager to feel the sky against my skin.

I am caught on the wings of a dream,

limbs in perfect formation,

like a bird in tandem with the wind

plunging toward the water.

I stop to linger in the scent of flight.

The smell of chlorine attacks my senses,

tearing doubt into my imagination.

I stumble to the ladder and start

my climb to the 3- meter board,

a thimble of fright tapping

a ballad across my rib bones.

Cold metal screams against my feet,

vines of anxiety crawling with skill

up the back of my neck.

I look nervously toward my coach,

pleading for a glimmer of confidence

or a fistful of staunch advice.

“If your fear is greater than your desire,

climb down”, she tells me.

It turns out I’m not a bird after all.

I prefer my feet on the ground.

Susan Richardson is living, writing and going blind in Los Angeles. In addition to poetry, she writes a blog called, Stories from the Edge of Blindness. Her work has been published in Foxglove Journal, Amaryllis, The Writing Disorder and Eunoia Review, among others. She was awarded the Sheila – Na – Gig 2017 Winter Poetry Prize, featured in the Literary Juice Q&A Series, and chosen as the Ink Sweat & Tears March 2018 Poet of the Month. She also writes for the Arts and Lit Collective, Morality Park.

August 6, 2018August 6, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: anxiety, bird, CA, creative, creativity, diving, doubt, dream, flight, fright, ground, imagination, poem, Poetry, pool, senses, sky, Susan Richardson, US, water, wind, wings, writing 3 Comments

Chocolate – Robert Beveridge

If I could take a drop

of honey from the tongue of Satan,

or dip my silver chalice

in an Erewhon river of chocolate,

I would feed you, my lips to yours.

Instead I have filled my mouth

with words, my cup

with water from a mudpuddle

still I ask you

take your nourishment

from me

Robert Beveridge makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry in Akron, OH. Recent/upcoming appearances in Savant-Garde, Other People’s Flowers, and The Indiana Horror Review, among others.

July 19, 2018July 19, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: chalice, chocolate, creative, creativity, cup, drop, feed, food, honey, lips, mouth, nourishment, OH, poem, Poetry, river, Robert Beveridge, silver, sweet, US, water, words, writing Leave a comment

The Laws of Physics – Richard Luftig

There is a pull

of a new moon

tonight, a yield

of starlight

that blinks

on, then off, as

only the clouds

command. Down

wind, the piers

that jut from

shore to shoals

are statues

with freezing arms

where even

barnacles sag

from dripping

ice. A neap

tide that refuses

to rest makes

whispers that

can still awaken

the waves while

along these sea-oak

shores, a jetty

that just a few

short hours ago

made a beach

now worries

the sand and

constantly tells

us as we struggle

to make a safe

harbor about

the gravity

of our situation.

Richard Luftig is a former professor of educational psychology and special education at Miami University in Ohio now residing in California. His poems and stories have appeared in numerous literary journals in the United States and internationally in Canada, Australia, Europe, and Asia. Two of his poems recently appeared in The Best Ten Years of Dos Madres Press.

July 13, 2018July 16, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: CA, change, clouds, creative, creativity, elements, ice, moon, nature, night, poem, Poetry, Richard Luftig, starlight, struggle, tide, time, US, water, whispers, wind, writing, yield Leave a comment

Wings – Arlene Antoinette

Driving home from the rehab center,

my mind filled with thoughts of my

father who was recuperating from a heart

attack, I watched as a buzzard attempted

to land atop a streetlight post. Oddly, his feet

missed the perch, I ducked while driving

afraid he would fall, splat, onto the roof of

my car. Of course, that result never occurred

to the winged creature who flapped his wings

a total of three times and landed steadily on

the post which was the goal from the beginning.

I laughed at myself, not believing how foolish

I had been to think the vulture could be grounded

so easily.

Arlene Antoinette is a poet of West Indian birth, who has given her heart to Brooklyn, New York where she spent her formative years. Her work has been published in Foxglove Journal, Little Rose Magazine, Tuck Magazine, I am not a silent poet, The Open Mouse, Neologism Poetry Journal, 50-Word Stories, A Story In 100 Words, The Ginger Collect, The Feminine Collective, Boston Accent Lit, Amaryllis, Your Daily Poem, Sick Lit Magazine, Postcard Shorts and Girlsense and Nonsense.

June 25, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: attempt, bird, buzzard, creative, creativity, creature, fall, family, fear, flight, goal, grounded, land, NY, perch, poem, Poetry, post, recuperation, US, vulture, wings, writing Leave a comment

Unwavering – Susan Richardson

Each day, as I reluctantly get out of bed,

to face the sunlight and blindness,

I ask you to hold my hand so I

won’t feel afraid of standing still.

You wrap my fluttering pulse in threads

of warmth that traverse your palms,

dulling the edges of my anxiety.

You teach me to shake off rage

and laugh at the act of coming unglued.

How quickly I learned to seek your

voice in the clamor of being alive,

rely on the steady cadence of your heart

to quiet the noises that breathe in darkness.

You stand unwavering in the center of

our life together, a beacon that always finds me.

Feeling your fingers against mine,

I stand beside you, content to close my eyes

and let the sun shine on my face.

Susan Richardson is living, writing and going blind in Los Angeles. In addition to poetry, she writes a blog called, Stories from the Edge of Blindness. Her work has been published in Foxglove Journal, Amaryllis, The Writing Disorder and Eunoia Review, among others. She was awarded the Sheila-Na-Gig 2017 Winter Poetry Prize, featured in the Literary Juice Q&A Series, and chosen as the Ink Sweat & Tears March 2018 Poet of the Month. She also writes for the Arts and Lit Collective, Morality Park.

June 18, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: anxiety, beacon, blindness, CA, creative, creativity, darkness, eyes, fear, hand, heart, life, light, poem, Poetry, pulse, rage, sun, Susan Richardson, US, voice, warmth, writing 10 Comments

I have yet to attend a funeral where it didn’t rain – John Grey

You were buried near twilight

and as the moon went missing

behind a combination of clouds,

and oncoming night methodically

devoured the shine, it was up to

your tombstone to illuminate

its surrounds, sprout grass and

wildflowers, as sky splashed,

on your new forecourt, star-sized tears

in the shape of rain, each one plopping

into the last, and your shadow,

having rid itself of you, found, beyond

death, new life as a black umbrella.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in Nebo, Euphony and Columbia Review with work upcoming in Leading Edge, Poetry East and Midwest Quarterly.

June 7, 2018June 7, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: Australia, burial, clouds, creative, creativity, death, John Grey, life, moon, nature, night, poem, Poetry, rain, shadow, sky, tears, twilight, umbrella, US, weather, wildflowers, writing 1 Comment

Earthquake – Susan Richardson

The earth rolls beneath my feet, a wave

carrying me across the courtyard.

I sink into his mouth.

Afternoon erupts with fear as the

ground spits back its shaking aftermath.

Sunburned pavement cracks in his grasp.

Evening whispers its descent,

peppering the sky with darkened clouds.

Far below, the world stands still.

Susan Richardson is living, writing and going blind in Hollywood. She was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa in 2002 and much of her work focuses on her relationship to the world as a partially sighted woman. In addition to poetry, she writes a blog called “Stories from the Edge of Blindness”. Her work has been published in: Stepping Stones Magazine, Wildflower Muse, The Furious Gazelle, The Hungry Chimera, Sheila-Na-Gig, Chantarelle’s Notebook, Foxglove Journal, Literary Juice and Sick Lit Magazine, with pieces forthcoming in Amaryllis. She was also awarded the Sheila-Na-Gig Winter Poetry Prize.

March 4, 2018March 4, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: aftermath, body, CA, creative, creativity, descent, earth, earthquake, elements, evening, fear, feet, ground, mouth, nature, poem, Poetry, senses, sky, Susan Richardson, US, world, writing 1 Comment

Día logues – Margaret King

She talks to every living thing

Maybe even more than humans

She talks to her plants as they grow

To butterflies & birds who visit daily

She has an ongoing rapport with the

Blue jays and chickadees

Who boisterously call for food

Whenever she walks under the trees

Of the yard

Underneath, the grass is littered with

Shells of sunflowers & peanuts

A beach, an ocean of giving &

Giving back

She talks to her cats

Marking loyal days together.

To her, these things are as alive as anyone

& worthy of communication.

But why doesn’t she speak to the

Hummingbirds? Messengers, she feels

She should at least send a prayer

Or a wish

Or a private longing

A cry for help

But she doesn’t

Want to scare them away.

Margaret King is a Wisconsin writer who enjoys penning poetry, short stories, and young adult novels. In her spare time, she likes to haunt the shores of Lake Michigan, similar to many of her fictional characters. Her most recent work has appeared in Unlost Journal, Moonchild Magazine, Enclave, and The Ginger Collect.

March 2, 2018March 2, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: animals, birds, cats, communication, creative, creativity, dialogue, elements, fauna, giving, insects, life, loyalty, Margaret King, nature, plants, poem, Poetry, speech, US, WI, wish, writing Leave a comment

Honest Hands – Susan Richardson

If he is the rain, then I am gravel,

parched under the embers of shame,

longing for the relief of him.

He washes the soot of loneliness

from my skin and offers me comfort.

Irish blood and bones, he is

the son of verdant landscapes,

shared pints of stout and fierce loyalty.

He navigates life vigorously

and laughs with his whole body.

His voice carries the tones of Autumn,

rich with the luster of unravelling gold.

I sink into the warmth of his words as

he helps stitch my broken limbs

with threads offered from his heart.

I remember so clearly the night

he wrapped his arms willingly

around my imperfections.

It was the first time I was

touched by honest hands.

February 23, 2018February 23, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: blood, body, CA, comfort, creative, creativity, hands, heart, life, loneliness, memory, nature, poem, Poetry, rain, relief, shame, Susan Richardson, US, voice, warmth, words, writing 1 Comment