The city man, his lecture notes, besides that flesh menagerie,
Chickweed’s chartreuse little disks inclosing towpaths latterly.
Plus, librarian trustees’ names, as well as footnotes, readily,
Even as small monkeys hug big hippos, tigers, reticulated snakes,
Learn death by cassowary, eat unripe fruit, fail from bad mistakes.

When acting justly, profits croon quite high for lesser recompense.
Concierges collect coupon mounds, but gather little common sense.
Doctoral students pose to sting captured rodents, for mere cents.
Dull effigies, left from lab time, such critters denote ephemera,
As taken from jolly birds’ poop on deans, also on other poo-bahs. 

Propitiation functions as to void certain fossa demographics,
What's more, cancels chimpanzees, wallabies, penguins guiding traffic,
Resemble worse case goings on, remind us texts might ring epigraphic.
Persuasion’s inoculation fails applied to most drugged adolescents;
Inscribed circles, Chaucer’s work, proceed irrelevant to malcontents.

Accordingly, vellum gets locked up ‘fore it turns into dull pulque,
Reflect; rebellious youths storm once they’ve read from Nikkei.
Demanding oleaster insights, small trulos, and oddly stirred play.  
Reduced mentions of child abuse, likewise, go astray, catches under
Projects concerned with wars, lords, beasts, fiefdoms, maybe numbers.

Intrepid teachers, nonetheless, sally forth, rouse referentially,
Swim in untenured tides, hum, work pigeonholes stalwartly,
On balance, school bureaucrats, old buffalos, esteem industry,
Not stylistic ideations, truth, or solenodons dancing fairy rings;
Officials seek white powder, trysts, somewhat “happy things.”


Author Bio:
KJ Hannah Greenberg writes with attitude since she's old enough to wear purple. Hannah's newest books are: The Little Temple of My Sleeping Bag (Dancing Girl Press, 2014), The Immediacy of Emotional Kerfuffles (Bards and Sages Publishing, 2013), and Citrus-Inspired Ceramics (Aldrich Press, 2013). 

Only a spark of fragility
can free from this dance of darkness,
from the frenzy of a world
of engines and wars,
which gets excited and proud
of grief and tears.
Only fragility can give us hope
in this night of the soul
where peace is rest
(after the slaughter),
awful is death
(but only of one’s mates),
enticing the looks of those
who with intoxicating persuasiveness
reassure us, soothe us leading us,
survivors,
along the last stretch of the road
(to our final ruin).


Author Bio:
Born in Ancona, graduated in Mathematics and in Political Sciences at the Padua University, Paolo Borsoni has published books and essays on the magazines including: "Sapere," "L'Elaborazione Automatica," "La Critica Sociologica, "Trimestre," and "Critica del Diritto." He also published three books of poetry and a collection of short stories.

He has won the following literary prizes including: "Garcia Lorca," "Raymond Carver," “Rocco Scotellaro,” “Alpi Apuane,” "Creativa," “Roberto Fertonani,” “Terziere di Cittavecchia,” "Cosmo d'Oro," "Città Di Pinerolo," "Città di Pescia," “Il Sabato del Villaggio," “Villa d’Agri,”  “Dante Boschi,” "Un Solo Mondo," “Liberali,” “Premio Letterario Campagnola,”  “Parole in Poesia,” “Versi per L’Anima,” “Nino Ferri,” “Il Rifugio dei Sogni,” “Mario Ferrario,” "AGO,"  “Due Torri," “Poesie a Lappano,” “Alba,” and "L'Uomo dopo Darwin."

no memories of this,
my birthplace,
save the faded stamp
of bureaucracy,
that confirms my be-
longing.

in my wanderings,
i seek familiar sights—
the marketplace abounds
with produce from small-acred
plots.

it’s like watching a
sepia-toned film
come alive.
time must have
stopped
for a long siesta here.

crowds throng the streets,
but stop as they pass me--
this curious creature from
someplace else.

in my faded jeans and sunglass-
hid looks
i am instantly
outcast.
discarded from
the mould.

and all this time,
i thought
i had travelled a mere
thousand miles…


Author Bio:
Shobhana Kumar's first collection of poetry, 'The Voices Never Stop' was published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta, in 2012. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in several journals and publications including Origami Poems Project, The Buddhist Poetry Review, ReadLeaf Poetry, Kritya, The Poetry Society of India, among others. She has also authored five books of nonfiction.