THE DESTROYER

Text by:  Nicole Wilson, Brandon Downing, Natasha Stagg, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Amaranth Borsuk, Chris Hosea, Tony Mancus, Whitney DeVos, Annie Guthrie, Brian Oliu

Art by:  Yuko Fukuzumi, Nicholas Hay, Sarah Duncan, and Casey Wilson

Opinion Pieces by:  Joe Hall, Steven M. Brown, Kim Largey-Soloway, and Lulu Antipyrene

And MORE.

Editors:  Drew Krewer,  Maureen McHugh
Managing Editor:  Meagan Lehr
Art Editor:  Andy Campbell
Web Designer:  Jason Criscio

click to hear: AT ONCE by Joseph Massey

click to hear: from FOR A GIRL BECOMING by Joy Harjo

click to hear: IN THE SALIVA by Frida Kahlo translated by Robert Hass 

Happy Saturday and Happy Listening +V

click to hear: [ASKING] by Barbara Jane Reyes from Poeta en San Francisco

click to hear: THE SONG OF THE BORDERGUARD by Robert Duncan 

I’ll be back next month with more favorites- ANY REQUESTS…

Happy Saturday +V

Happy Monday +V

Yeses with fingers‹-unblousing, undressing

Skin, her truss. No need

For flight here, except

Air wrapped in irridescent

Feathers. Or, a verb’s splendid long

Bone all lit up for

This new, unbuttoned birdology. Tiny

Chances, coins tossed: a

Firmament above, arousing

Power below. Let

It come.

m

Lisa Bowden

I remember the crook of your arm,
an erotic place in which I longed to live forever.

Your skin is the water, I am the boat–
washed clean, finally.

m

Lisa Cole

This series is called “Natural Fusion” and they are all taken of different sections of Antelope Slot Canyons, Arizona. which are made up of various layers of sandstone deposited about 190 mya. and carved out by water wind and erosion.

Growing up along the Chesapeake Bay surrounded by Artists and Scientists, taught me the value of finding what I love the most; Art, Photography, and Poetry. Combing my passions with my job as a wilderness and Archeological Guide for northern Arizona brought together who I am today, a seeker of finding the hidden realms within nature.

EMPATHIC ATTUNEMENT

I LOVE YOUR BRAIN

Here. Will you take this stone
and make a wish, then give it to the miller.
She’ll make you a page
while I sleep so the robot
can change me. I’ll wish for ice cream.

ICE CREAM

Surrounded by these columns, each heart-shaped capitol crowned w/ a brain,
I’d like to give you this tiny robot.
Hold it like a river stone,
here, in the palm of your hand, while I light the page.
Here’s to watching the sky change w/ my love, the miller!

“I’ll STAND BY YOU” SANG THE MILLER

waiting in line for a scoop of ice-cream.
She hid a love note on a page
of our notepad for me to find. Her brain
suits my heart like a precious stone
in its circle of rose. I hope she’ll forgive me this robot.

DEAR DA VINCI ROBOT

Thank you for helping the miller,
her Quern-stone
was blocking our path to the ice-cream
parlor. Origami brain-
I’m so glad you answered our page.

PAGE

Thank you for being brave enough to use a robot
to remove the endometriosis and organs that pained me, that seized my brain,
my spirit, the heart of the miller.
Now we can argue about ice-cream,
a simple scoop vs. blended w/ toppings on a cold stone.

DEAR DR STONE

Thank you for wondering. I feel as light as a page
descending in air. I feel hope. Eating ice-cream
can bring about joy. I stopped for some on my way to the miller.
It helped ease my brain.

“Ice-cream,” I sang at the cornerstone,
“Brain and Heart–” right here on the front page:
“Robot surgeon grants a wish,” for my love, Jane Miller!

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Hi, I’m the creator of Back Room Live. My visual art can be viewed at Harriet Homemaker. I blog at Life-long Press. Check out my poem MORE ELSE at Spiral Orb or YOU’RE MINE YOU at Saint Mary’s Magazine or listen to HERE here.

look deep enough

Love speaks in its own

strange ways

Afraid that I might wake up

and break this dream

I tried drowning myself

into absence

but you - you are present all the time

And now I roam with a poem

stuck in my chest

it doesn’t let me breathe

but I can’t pen it down either

Three words that I need to say

and maybe you need to hear

m

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Priyesha K. Nair  is the editor of The Indian Diary. Her work was first published by the International Word Bank.