Poetry by F. E. Clark

To Bring the Sky Down

A scared flame of violet – burnt from a found bone,

The indigo of your first lover’s jeans,

High sky blue of a day in spring when the larks sung,

Green fired algae from the dead pond’s ditch

Yellow of the belly of the one who cowers,

Orange from the fungi that grows under the dead fox,

The red of a berry that poisons.

Plait the rainbow - red over orange, yellow over green, blue over indigo,

Tie with violet at the deepest hour of black,

Make sure you bind the rainbow’s ends tight,

When required, cast from a clifftop on a dark moon night.

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F. E. Clark lives in the North East of Scotland. She writes and paints and walks the perimeter of her days looking for colour and texture to inspire her work. In 2016 she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, a Best of the Net, and had a Sma Buik published by Poems For All. Her writing can be found or is upcoming at: Molotov Cocktail Literary Magazine, Planet Paragraph, Twisted Sister Lit, Moonchild Magazine, and The Occulum. website - www.feclarkart.com | twitter - @feclarkart

Collaborative Poem by Alexis Bates & Logan February

pomegranate

with a neck bent / like prayer
I clung to the fruit as though I was
a part of it / a seed needing to be cut

away / I stared at food the way
murderers look / at their victims
the way God looks upon his creations

a single      pomegranate
holds hundreds of decisions inside
its  skin      & eating was always

the wrong one / but it was sacred
sliding pulped flesh past my lips
spitting out seeds / just like it is

holy / to claim the self:
sickness / success /

I am hundreds of little / red decisions
scattered on the kitchen floor
& so what / if they don’t all taste good

I stare in the mirror / take a knife
to these delicate       ideals
split them         open wider

& wider / avoid the body
grip the fruit      tight

it does not taste killer
I do not feel victimized
this is still        progress

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Alexis Bates is a poet and writer that uses words to become intimate with an audience. You can read her words in Luna Luna Magazine, Five:2:One, Vagabond City Lit, and elsewhere. Her micro-chap, When Cars Touch, is forthcoming from Ghost City Press.

Logan February is a happy-ish Nigerian owl who likes pizza & typewriters. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in (b)OINK, Wildness, Vagabond City, and more. His chapbooks, Painted Blue with Saltwater (Indolent Books) and How to Cook a Ghost (Glass Poetry Press) are forthcoming. Say hello on Instagram & Twitter @loganfebruary.