47 – So I Turned

unable to meet her gaze
rampantly Roman Catholic
so I turned the other cheek

my gaze inwards,
still couldn’t look myself in the eye
scarlet, then blue and grey

as fair play cartwheels down Water Street
and into the waves, I turned
I realized that something catalytic
must have happened

my grave
the page

I turned the radio on
I turned off the road
I turned into someone else
a blade of grass lost amongst millions

left on a red
Saturn with a single word
right what wonder

I turned inside out
into an exquisite corpuscle

at Alburquerque, lost, wrong
in protest
a détournement of walking

off the light
over a leaf
an old idiom
on in out

television myself to face me
I never caught a glimpse

my destiny
coming freight train
blinding

over the garden
out the light
lexicographer
from the light
the darkness thanks

faced the mirror
once again

so I turned out badly

Lauren Corman, Nick Treanor, Diane Schoemperlen, Andréa Ledding, Tobey C. Anderson, Leslie Ambedian, Brian Bartlett, Andrew Waldie Porteus, Andrew Topel, Bibiana Padilla Maltos, Catherine Heard, James Dewar, Rob Budde, Kathleen Betts, Vanessa Place, Angela Genusa, Warren Dean Fulton, Gary Barwin, Alice Burdick, Amanda Earl, Alice Robinson, Kristen Peterson, Nancy Allen, Carmen Racovitza, Roger Hanna, Christine Leclerc

48 – And began destroying

And begin destroying aphorism contests
what I have built
for only words outlive stone

the beginning
the end to begin again
only books outlive screens

above Toronto Dominion
begging the king, the best
repeat the ending of creation

the structure from within
what you yourself have destroyed
the destroyer

a fondness for paradox on my part
notwithstanding
withstands the test of time

relationships, ecosystems, credibility
everything we know
destroys beginnings

bullets into white flags
gun barrels destroying
things that remind me of your face

you scumbag, your inner demons
the bonds between us, one by one
still good to ruin

oh kali, goddess of annihilation
helter skelter hate and destruction
memories and underused brain cells


Laurie Anne Fuhr, Pricilla Brett, Andrew Topel, Elena Basile, Tim Posgate, Neil Hennessy, Andréa Ledding, Catherine Heard, Ian Rae, Kathleen Betts, Warren Dean Fulton, Sharon Honywill-Haddow, Brian Bartlett, Kristen Peterson, Alice Robinson, Amanda Earl

G49 – I Mean Re-Storying

like a house,
a narrative restored
twisting the plot’s foundation
and re-pouring and restoring and returning
with a pen on the pearly surface
of the Archimedes palimpsest
without all that glorying
my own story

faction fiction
fraction friction

when I crawl back into
the cave
the basement the
integrity
building
tearing off
the heart of matter

the plot’s momentum is slowed
too much too many
revisions
throughout the whole structure
of fairytale fabrications

live or leave the gene and the building,
the senses one would assume

Vanessa Place, Bryne Helen Lewis, Amanda Earl, Andrew Topel, Catherine Heard, Alice Robinson, Bibiana Padilla Maltos, Kathleen Betts, Brian Bartlett, Warren Dean Fulton, James Yeary

G53 – The Democratic Narrative

The democratic narrative was deceptively grammatical until voted in favour of non-chronological sequences, meanwhile the omniscient author held language in a Totalitarian regime of semiotics strained in its own lingua through a rusty sieve of a reminder endorsed by the minister retroactively, suggests the latest casualty. See A9 eventually led to an election each week, life one big campaign, he demon a rat separated by the iron curtain from the communist’s five year plan, five men in a back room laughing so far has been a tale told by the rich was subverted when the talent agent asked, “What do you call your act?”

The family replied in unison, “The subliminal Tea Party, complete with raven & writing desk riddle, if there is such a thing, is more of a limerick. Will brook no incursions on semantic liberties is a vicious plot.”

Oh, oh Canada candidates for the upcoming election are never seen on the FOX news or CNN argument without substance and honour our home and native Hippocratic imperative. Who will finance the next sob story by big business? Who will try to buy the poor off with promises and pennies? These tangled tales from many knots.

Rob Budde, Warren Dean Fulton, Garry Thomas Morse, Brian Bartlett, Andrew Topel, Catherine Heard, Priscilla Brett, Jamie Reid, Tobey C. Anderson, Amanda Earl, Kim Goldberg, Kathleen Betts, Joseph Brown

G54 – Unleashing Something Beyond

Unleashing something beyond a bitter heart

thunder and lightening comprehension

a horseman of doom, destruction

at this time of year

go, go

the leashes of the minutes

and the hours

the beyond

squash the beyond

the leash lashing out

finally buying into

incorrect spelling

as free as a dog park dog

beyond the power

Jesus

continue to rant ‘til dawn

. . .

I scream “Stop!”

the dog

Cerberean hounds

snarling, barking mutts

the outer reaches of our ancient dreams

the heat of a thousand suns

the rhythm of glints in our eyes

barking mad

from thoughts to pebble casting into the lake

the ripples dissipate

the memory lake is suspended

high above pavement

the chain escape

performed

Lauren Corman, Sharon Honywill-Haddow, Priscilla Brett, Joseph Brown, Brian Bartlett, Andrew Topel, Terry Trowbridge, Neil Hennessy, Andrew Waldie Porteus, Amanda Earl, Warren Dean Fulton, Tobey C. Anderson, Rob Budde, Kathleen Betts, Penn Kemp, Warren Dean Fulton, Alice Robinson, Catherine Heard, Roger Hanna