— editors’ favorites

Silence falls between us
Words are there but not flowing freely
Could it be the painful heat?
Plunging deep into your heart,
you blabber meaningless words,
expecting them to satisfy.
At first they quench my thirsty ears,
but just as bluntly as you started,
you ended,
leaving me longing for more.
Your leaky faucet of a mouth
has gotten me clogged in its drain.

Minds wandering aimlessly across hidden horizons
Off to other terrors and thrills
Thoughts digging deep like miners for coal
Brightness, darkness, memories too much
Looking so calm, but you scream inside
Consuming the sweetness of life that sucks you in
Thousands of oceans rippling waves
Sands slipping through the fingers of God
Great blankets of despair pulled over your eyes
Followers drift through and bow to the almighty
Falling down and hitting so hard
The knife rips through with unbearable bitterness
The red-hot sins seeping in
Disbelieving and inhumane imbalances marking their way
Watching and waiting for you to mess up
Adrenaline slips in with your blood
Silent secrets, creating jealousy and evil
Looking in at your reflections and seeing the other worlds
Whirlwinds of color and raindrops of tears
Roads leading to nowhere, but sky and land
Reaching to heaven with hands of wood
Giants thunder and villages crumble
Footprints in bedded in the earth
Smell of rain and spring breezes
Beauty and closeness so hard and so soft
Unknowing love for one to another
Friendships growing and smiles unforgotten
Fireworks of hate embellish the sky
Glittering dust of human history

Five cars speed past, startle me as I
Hustle along North Michigan Avenue,
Darting to beat the crowds, knocking
Some over, leaving all behind.
Shopping bags, I drag, growing heavier,
But I don’t care.
Beggars plead for money, play sweet music.
I ignore them, continue on, down the sidewalks,
Through the business of Chicago, of life.
No longer cautious, time is
My only enemy.
I advance, never hesitating, quickening my pace and
All around, life is a blur, swirling, whirling, twirling.
I will not stop, I will not stop until…
“Don’t Walk.” My path is obstructed, my pace,
Broken.
Time is passing, the world is still spinning, life is
Moving on, and I must cease to proceed. I must
Stop.
Yet for once, I notice the beauty of it all, the serenity
Of the atmosphere, the glistening sun’s reflection on the windows,
The shoppers, businessmen, life itself.
I see the sky above, the cracks in the sidewalk, the wisdom in
The eyes of an old man standing next to me. In this moment,
In this precious, magnificent moment, I see the world and all its splendor.
Did this exist before? Was all this beauty housing itself within
That blur around me? For once, I have found peace, contentment.
All because I stopped.

It’s the burst of color into a gray mind.
The sun’s bright rays on a rainy day.
The cool wind on a hot sea.
The sight of land after a long journey.
It’s inspiration: a way of life.

This is not anything nor is it everything it
is not two footprints made upon sand by a
man who has one hand with a pink pig that
has a curly tail it is not chaotic nor is
it tranquil like a calm ocean just before a
storm it is not a circle nor a square or
oval or a pear this is not nothing but if
not nothing it must be everything which it
is not it has no time nor space it is not
April March or May or a person made of clay
it does not live nor does it die it is not
able to move around but is not stationary
on the ground it cannot love nor can it hate
just like a robot which it ain’t. it is not
a worm on asphalt after a rain about to be
eaten by a bird it is not closed but not
open either it is not a paradox but then
what is it the one handed man asks. the
curly tail pig answers it is not.

If I had only one chance to look at it again
It only lasted for a while
It was red, orange and yellow
Its rays were radiant
The walkway it created was mesmerizing
It looked like a gateway to heaven
Glimmering over the ocean
Like a golden paved path
Protruding across the waves
As I pondered the moment
I could hear the waves crashing
Against the seashore
Joined by the seagull’s cry
I could taste the saltwater washing up on the beach
I could feel the constant breeze brushing through my hair
Just as the last glimmer was disappearing
I realized that beauty is an essence in itself.

There you are,
Scratching at the surface.
Wrists scarred from failure.
So frail you’ve become.
Battered is your brain,
From banging on your cage.
There you are,
Hauling chains that bind your soul.
Opened your mouth again,
And let your tongue slit your wrist.
You’re so scarred from all the times,
Your words tangle and twist,
And leave you broken.
You’ve upset your web, my friend.
Again.
But you shall weep no more.
For,
There will be other days.

Alligators are horrible, violent and ugly but
you wouldn’t say it to their face.

The clouds run with the wind as the trees reach up to slow them down.

The clouds run with the wind as the trees reach up to slow them down.

I lie there without moving an inch
Cold as the poles if not colder than that
As the empty tears run down my frozen cheeks
I lie there alone, cold, empty, sad, dead
I wish then someone had cared for me
I wish then someone had tried to save me
I wish then I had confidence in myself
Because then I would not lie alone broken
My body lies there unattended to, nothing at all
The blood frozen inside me with my arteries cracked
The steel jammed inside of me frozen and cracked also
My spirit has also cracked and is actually warm in hell
Why did I do this to myself, Why couldn’t I try to be happy.
Maybe I thought then I would of made the world a happier place and
relieving my pain by the blade.