Spring 2020
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magic spell
You will need–A preying mantis rescued from a lawnmower–Five ants rescued from a kitchen wherethe balabosta was going to crush them.–A wrapped piece of grocery cakeHostessor my new favorite that comes from Mexicowhite cake covered in chocolate with somespots of red jelly Gansito–Your favorite pair of colored socks–Your favorite pair of comfortable worn-out socks–A book…
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This Morning
I went for taro, custard, and red bean buns. Shrieks above from an argument broke my somnolence; a gull defended the cross it perched on from a circling raven’s assault. The vanquished raven landed and sulked. Do I call it augury, score a win for yang, or remember Jeffers, who wrote, “it is bitter earnestness…
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Dialectic
The absence of Desire is sometimes Called peace. See flowers. Smell them. See birds. Hear them. Imagine their absence. Who can deny life’s desire for more life? The absence of desire is sometimes called peace, But perhaps only by those too weary To witness spring. Jason Szdlik‘s poem This Morning…
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Shy
Accessible Word Version_ Shy_Kayla_Wilton Shy by Kayla Wilton I received my English degree with a Spanish minor from CSU Stanislaus in Spring 2019, and I will complete my creative writing certificate at CCSF in Spring 2020. Writing is my passion, but I also dabble in drawing, painting, photography, and performance. My work has appeared…
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Solanum Lycopersicum
light from overhead fixtures reflects off of your hallowed surface like distant low beams cutting through fog cold and unyielding though supple in places, your smooth skin covers familiar topography in reds and oranges so fine hiding the vulnerable flesh within nightshade sepal that you wear as a crown does it remind you…
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Bag of Marbles
We were shooting marbles with our older brother Arnulfo kneeling on a patch of dirt Front of a mud brown apartment building Clink as one marble collides into another He won a ruby glass Cleary Shiny marbles, shiny joy in our eyes As he was 27 and playing with us kids…
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Embryonic Drums
I need to pasture this plain but have no water supply, no aqueous piping to advance the drink that last river to cross in the bloodvein of bone-filled alleys where bibles and knives lay used and worn hummingbirds careen in plein air, flip, then flop, land in a grove of latticed leaves their…
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Sticky Pavement
Tense, blurry sight. Status? Stagnant water without the contemplation. A deep-rooted spinal itch, trails like a trickle, not cool, not sweet, up to my neck and down to my tailbone. Let me breathe myself into the night air that drifts and clings to my nose tip ears, eyebrows, lips, chest. I want…
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Momma Spider
The tenuous strings that hold her aloft Are of her own creation. She weaves them and deals them, Spins until she feels celestially secure. Strung between a hearty green branch And a wooden-panelled house, She softly sways against the pitch And fall of the warm-winged night, Silhouetted by the tiny icy stars That align…
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Neon Pharmacy
I know I’ve stepped on sands of beaches hit on all sixes; shot the Chicago typewriter mammy cradles Jazzbo to the living end near the villa I kiss his warm lips, tarot cards over dry lake beds near Missouri tugboats map my route wings flap like coattails as anchors fall from the sky leaving their…
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