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The Day She Tasted the Fruit~ By Marzia Rahman

6/15/2022

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She looked here and there, and when she was sure no one was nearby; she plucked the fruit from the tree—a red ball like a clot of blood. She imagined the juicy taste and her mouth watered and right then, he appeared, frowning. She wanted to touch him, kiss him and do all the other things forbidden to them. She made a wish and blushed; a wild wish, and a dream, of course unattainable—but what if it became true? She was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn’t realise when she popped a segment into her mouth, and he shouted, what have you done … and she looked up, his eyes carrying the cadence of the crimson night. As they got caught in the midst of a maelstrom of fire and fury and the fruit dropped from her hand and they fell and fell from the face of heaven, she looked into his eyes and found what she was always looking for.


Author Bio:
Marzia Rahman is a Bangladeshi writer and translator. Her flashes have appeared in 101 Words, Postcard Shorts, Five of the Fifth, Fewerthan500.com, WordCity Literary Journal, Red Fern Review, Dribble Drabble Review, Paragraph Planet, Six Sentences, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Potato Soup Journal, Borderless Journal, The Antonym, Flash Fiction Festival Four and Writing Places Anthology UK. Her novella 'Life on the Edges" was longlisted in 2018. Her novella-in-flash If Dreams had wings and Houses were built on clouds was longlisted in the Bath Novella in Flash Award Competition in 2022. She is also a painter.

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The marvel of the freedom: In patches~ By Paweł Markiewicz

6/14/2022

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The vault opens oneself at dawn.
The calyx of an Arctic alpine forget-me-not reopens
for an enchanting glory of the sunshiny dreams,
because of the eternally august poem,
that reads lenient and benignant.

Throughout the day:
there is up there a paradisiacal flight
of all halcyon seraphim,
singing through the stoicism, eudemonia
of many celestial dreamers.

Under the sun: a rhythm in wings of butterflies.
After evenfall: the paradise closes itself.
The springtide has gone to bed in aestival splendor.

Than overnight a balmy sempiternity sleeps as well.
Here below a sensitive firefly flies,
above so ravishing earth.
In danger owing to the raveners of the night.
Indeed spared thanks to the sheen of Luther’s star.
The earth becomes a dazzling hereafter.
It remains not far from June sparks, the little fire.
.
.........................

vault - (poetical) sky
benignant - mild
halcyon - peaceful
seraphim - seraphs
aestival - summery
ravener - bird of prey
sempiternity - eternity


Author Bio:
Paweł Markiewicz was born 1983 in Siemiatycze in Poland. He is poet who lives in Bielsk Podlaski and writes tender poems, haiku as well as long poem.
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Ideas, Matter & the Light that Sings~ By David Wyman

6/9/2022

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What the media narrative promises,
that in a world ablaze
with probabilities and data,
one person can make a viral impact
on history going forward.
Whilst near the end, the one becomes a something
larger, but like a rogue exoplanet, a celebrity
inspiring copycats. (Still to say all
opinions are not equal is belittling, yet aren’t
some opinions just wrong?) What we read

into it, then, unconsciously manifests in new light--
purplish behind a lightning shaped like veins.
What do they think is going to happen? The
solutions are on a much higher frequency
only actualized by self-awareness…


Author Bio:
David Wyman’s second poetry collection, Violet Ideologies, was published in 2020 by Kelsay Books. His first book Proletariat Sunrise, also published by Kelsay Books, came out in 2017. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Voices Project, BlazeVOX, Dissident Voice, Zombie Logic Review, Clockwise Cat & Squawk Back among other publications. He lives in Massachusetts and teaches at a local community college. He’s a fan of Noam Chomsky, jazz guitar and the visionary poetry of William Blake.
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Help Wanted~ By Alexander Pérez

6/8/2022

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​Out of all
The good jobs,
Poem,
Why poetry?
 
Bet your parents
Are real disappointed.
 
Why not a
Bank manager?
Real estate agent?
Let’s be practical.
 
Maybe a doctor!?
Even if you
Are not a real
Doctor, but
Play one on TV,
Your parents
Could brag
To the neighbors.
They could finally
Say you’re not
Living in their basement.
Loser.
 
Have you ever
Heard of poetry
Striking it rich?
Get real.
Not unless you’re
Mediocre & make it
To the big time:
Barnes & Noble.
 
Sure, you want
To be one of a kind.
I hear you.
So let’s think of
Anything except
Poetry.
 
I got it!
Big Foot.
 
You already have
Crazed fans.
 
I have seen them online.
On cable TV.
They’re searching for you
Like you’re the messiah.
 
Then you come out on a
Barbara Walters special:
“Hey guys. I’m Bigfoot.”
That would be big news.
Even if you confess
“I have small feet.”
 
Yes!
Then the neighbors
Would stop
Talking about
Their darling
Jennifer.
Jennifer who
Went to
Harvard (big whoop).
Now a bigshot at some
Money-laundering
Financial institution
Making eight fingers
With a house on
Martha’s Vineyard.
 
That would shut
Them humble braggers
Up.
 
You know what?
I say be something
Even better
Even more
Freakin’ awesome:
An extra-terrestrial!
Now that would
Make some noise.
Not Spielberg’s
E.T. though.
He’s a wuss.
 
But please don’t
Abduct anyone
And do freaky things
To their butts.
We get plenty
Of that on
The internet.
 
Then you could
Lend a helping hand
To this doomed planet.
 
Use your powers
For some big
Advancements
Like the ability to eat
Mexican
Without getting gas,
Or, no doubt, cloning.
We want to stay up late
Playing video games.
Sleep all day
While our clone goes
To that mind-numbing
Nine to five.
These are the things
Earthlings really want.
And to find out
Who killed Kennedy.
That’s the first thing.
 
You could always be a cat.
It’s not much work.
An easy job.
Have a funky name like
Sir Meow-Mix-A-Lot.
 
Everyone loves cats.
Except the people we
Don’t talk to.
The “dog people.”
Don’t be one of them.
They’re mutts.
Oops, I meant nuts.
 
Also, don’t be
The moon.
It’s ’s tired of not
Getting paid
For its likeness.
Moon poems are
Pretty cheesy anyway.
 
If only the moon
Had licensed their
Image like
Kim K.
(Kris Jenner
Please don’t sue me for
Unauthorized trademark
Infringement.)
To be on the safe side
I will say like Dolly Parton.
She’s cool.
 
The melancholic &
Alcoholic
Are out too.
We have lost
A lot of good poems
That way.
 
You could always try
Filling a real tough job
Something you’re
Made for…
 
A
Revelation,
Reconciliation,
Path to freedom,
Anecdote to cynicism,
Peace treaty,
Saving grace,
Common language,
Declaration of Interdependence,
Secret to happiness,                                                                                           
A rhyme or reason.


Author Bio:
Alexander Pérez (he/him/his), gay and Latino, has stories and poems published in Trolley (NYS Writers Institute), Whisky Blot, Defenestration, Flash Fiction Magazine, (mac)ro(mic), and X-RAY. He received a James B. Duke Fellowship from Duke University to study Latinx and queer studies. He holds a BA in English from the University at Buffalo and MA in philosophy from the University at Albany. He currently works for the School of Education at the University at Albany. Website: perezpoet.press Instagram/Twitter: @perezpoet
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Human Nefariousness~ By Ahmed Mehdi

6/7/2022

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A crow taught Cain how to bury Abel,
So don’t claim to be a superior race.
Since life’s dawn you’ve borne many a label
That demeaningly disgrace and debase
Unbiased, you’ll see worth in flocks and herds
Like meekness in lambs and patience in steers,
Ethics in ravens and chasteness in birds,
And many a trait praised by pamphleteers.
Humans, however; to my sheer dismay
Are largely lustful, greedy and envious.
Heartlessly inclined to torment and slay
Leaving others with a taste to odious.
It would be well-grounded, reasoned and sane
If people learned from beings more humane.

Copyright © Ahmed Mehdi- All rights reserved


Author Bio:
Ahmed Mehdi is an EFL teacher from Sfax, Tunisia. He has been writing poetry as a hobby, including Shakespearean sonnets, for the last 16 years. He firmly believes that poetry is, to some extent, articulation and perception, but it is essentially, and above all, inspiration!
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