30 July 2011

Raud Kennedy

Scott Owens

I. B. Rad

Martin Willitts Jr

Raud Kennedy

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Afghanistan

In bed, prolonging the moments
before pushing back the covers.
The voice on NPR, a reporter in Afghanistan,
refers to the spring fighting season
as if he’s announcing the opening
of ski season at Mt. Hood Meadows.
I brush my teeth, minty fresh, extra whitener.
Death tolls from suicide bombings.
Toweling off after showering, it’s total US casualties,
a number that could be the population figure
of a small city. A city of dead young men and women.
The refreshing lather lifts my beard
as my triple bladed razor shaves my face kissable smooth.
Tell me again why we are there while I am here.


Bio:
Raud Kennedy is a writer and dog trainer in Portland, Oregon. To learn about his most recent work, Portland, a collection of short stories. www.raudkennedy.com




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Scott Owens

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Losing Light

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity - Yeats

Days count down towards the end,
each one with less light
than the one before it.
The vision of hope’s flame
illuminating night and day
seems a distant memory,
perhaps never more than dream,
belief displayed on imagination’s screen
transformed by necessity of compromise,
disillusionment of dreamers,
idealists, hopeless romantics
too quick to feel betrayed.
The question is how to survive
in a world that drains light away.


Bio:
Recipient of awards from the Academy of American Poets and the Pushcart Prize Anthology, Scott Owens is the author of 8 collections of poetry and over 900 published poems in journals including Georgia Review, North American Review, Chattahoochee Review, Southern Poetry Review, and Poetry East among others. He is the founder of Poetry Hickory, editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review and 234, and vice president of the Poetry Council of NC. He teaches at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, NC. www.scottowenspoet.com




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I. B. Rad

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The New Man

In a bygone Soviet era
Marxist commentators constantly extolled
the advent of a "new man;"
that is, the evolution of its citizens
(both men and women)
into consummate comrades
fit to forge a workers paradise.
Analogously, crony capitalism demands
its own species of new man,
a pliable hermaphrodite,
so in America's rising utopia
corporate/ government/ Wall Street stewards
are no longer requisite
since our ultimate citizens
will go fuck themselves.


Bio:
Ms Rad, I.B., and wonderdog work and play in New York City.

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Martin Willitts Jr

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What Has The World Come To?

What has the world come to?
We take advantage of others for our own purposes.

Some terrorists captured a nine year old girl
as she was going to school
which was forbidden to girls.
She had a small space of her face exposed,
which was definitely against religion.
We may think that this is harsh,
but that is their belief. This does not mean
her kidnapping was necessary.

They strapped a bomb on her
and sent her to a public market to blow herself up.
When she did not comply, was she defying religion?
The men who sent her
thought their mission was righteous.

What is conviction but failure to see a better way?
How can we rest the disquieted spirit after this?


Bio:
Martin Willitts Jr recent poems appeared in Naugatuck River Review, MiPOesias, Flutter, Atticusbooks.net, Muse Café, and Caper Journal. He was recently nominated for two Best of The Net awards and his 5th Pushcart award. He has new chapbooks: “The Girl Who Sang Forth Horses” (Pudding House Publications, 2010), “Van Gogh’s Sunflowers for Cezanne” (Finishing Line Press, 2010), “True Simplicity” (Poets Wear Prada Press, 2011), “My Heart Is Seven Wild Swans Lifting” (Slow Trains, 2011), “Why Women Are A Ribbon Around A Bomb” (Last Automat, 2011), and “Art Is Always an Impression of What an Artist Sees” (Muse Café, 2011).



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