Alleyway

today, the cloud wears the shades of gloom
and upon the earthers it rains the precipitates of sorrow.

outside, the sun is a melting silver lining
and there are no rainbows here, just ash.

in the hues of seasons, I have never known a darker day
for my heart is a lightbulb lapped by the wicked tongue of a moth
and my scars are scorched metaphors of a burnt firmament.

in the clouds, a lightbug dances,
little does it knows it is a silhouette in this orb of darkness.

this poem is a grayscale of the colors of joy swallowed by the dark moon
and here there is no better ending than a night.

today, the moon is a sundry wizard and my mind
is its coven of enchantment.

Bio And Links

-Adesiyan Oluwapelumi, TPC XI,

writes from Ibadan, Nigeria. He received an Honourable Mention in the international Metamorphosis Writing Contest. He was also shortlisted in the August-September 2022 edition of the Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest. His works are featured/ forthcoming in Brittle Paper, Afristories, Kahalari review, Eunoia Review, Snowflake Magazine, Salamander Ink, Lumiere Review, Culture Cult Press, Icefloe Press & elsewhere. He is currently a Poetry Reader at Kitchen Table Quarterly.

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Parasite

Attachment
leads to all sorts of side-effects:

stunting growth,
loss of strength.
Infestation leaves

you breathless, unable
to take on oxygen,
dying of thirst and want
of life

while it thrives. And replaces

you, when you are too weak
to support it. You

who nurtured
it from a seed
penetrating deep down

in your dark veins. It has grown
away from the light

taken on a toxic slant.

A bad case can kill.

If you knew what I know,
you wouldn’t be kissing.

-Louise Longson

Bio and Links

-Louise Longson

started writing poetry in her late 50s, during isolation in lockdown 2020. She is published by One Hand Clapping, Fly on the Wall, Nymphs, Ekphrastic Review, Obsessed with Pipework, Indigo Dreams Publishing, Dust Magazine, Modern Haiku, Dreich, Black Bough Poetry, The Poetry Shed and others. She is the author of the ‘Slim’ chapbook (12 poems), Hanging Fire (Dreich Publications, 2021) and Songs from the Witch Bottle (18 poems) (Alien Buddha Press, 2022).  A qualified psychotherapist, she works remotely from her home in a small village for a charity that offers a listening service to people whose physical and emotional distress is caused by loneliness and historic trauma. Her poems are inspired by a bringing together of her personal and work experiences, seen through the twin prisms of myth and legend, and the natural environment.

Twitter @LouisePoetical

Gloss

Surfaces
are what we see
rain glanced, and street
lights, traffic lights, sing under them, tell
me! Green
or red?

-Dave Garbutt

The world is
full of colours,

provided the
viewer registers
the divine
display

and,

like
an involved
stage actor

becomes integrated
with the mise-en-scene

for an excited
Elizabethan audience.

Text/s. Actor/s.
Scene/s. Spectators:
Seamlessly one:
Sublime action!

-Sunil Sharma