X-RAY

Your bones seemed friendly
When first we met.
Your ribs curved towards me.
Your tail-bone wagged.
The trunk of you spoke
Of some long-term journey.
The zip of your spine
Looked straight and true.
The pelvic zone,
Hip bones, open to suggestion.
Your teeth smiled honesty.
It’s the covering of flesh
That suggests
An under cover agent.
Your muscles tensed intent
On clean surgery
That will sting and leave
A bleeding, soaking my body
Where my heart was.

Christine J. Schiff (cumin)

ON DRESDEN LOVINGLY

This room is vacant,
echoing silence
trapped in vast
canyons.

Like a geisha on tiptoes
I glide along memories
of your laughter
without disturbing the dust
and ashes there.

Remember how we sang boldly?
coming from the city.
The wine as stale
as poetry.

That night you were a fireplace
crackling loudly.
I have not warmed
to you since.

Devastated by silence,
like Dresden skies
clear and blue before planes
crouched on the mustard horizon.

The wires hum doom
but the silent handset
will not tell of it—
no.
Air is too thin
to carry these stories.

David N. Betzer

(Untitled)

Mummy told her Keep away
From those alleys at night
Where foolish girls stray
And are caught
And are captured
And broken along the way.

But the night sings such a pretty song
And the ghosts that cry are little defense—
Make little sense
Against those lullaby blues,
As you follow the path lined with breadcrumb clues
And dancing lights lure you along.

She ate an apple one sunny day,
Then clawed at her skin
As the venom made its burning way
Down her body,
Through her bones.
Moulding her like she was made of clay.

The venom’s rough hands purpled her skin.
Its nails could claw and its teeth could bite,
Scarring the white
Left in the dip of her neck.
Her body, a temple, was abandoned a wreck,
Bathed in sweat and soaked in sin.

‘Cause everything’s free... if you’re willing to pay.
She’d chosen the night shift,
Now in the cold light of day
Her battered body,
Broken and bruised,
Was one more ghost for the street where she lay.

Holly Morran (Thatgirl)