Exterminating Angel Press

Creative Solutions for Practical Idealists.

Marissa Bell Toffoli

Advice.

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by Marissa Bell Toffoli.

Easy to give,
hard to take.
I’m collecting
wise words
like buttons
in a jar.
Shook up–
how they rattle
before settling in.
Pick one, test
the weight of it
in your hand.
Try another,
try them all.
Hem and haw,
and sew a new
design. Plan
for things to go
agley. Autumn
is a waking dream,
fallen leaves,
buttoning down
the path.

Aside.

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by Marissa Bell Toffoli. Field of infinite whispers. Supple blades of pale sage,
the color of cat eyes. How they widen / wink in sunlight. It’s not always clear what is real. The past is ever present / now slips out from under us. Day at the shore, look out for the horizon. Memory traces a […]

Springtime Walk.

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by Marissa Bell Toffoli. Your shadow catches mine, stretches long up the sidewalk, plays hide and seek in patchy sunshine. You turn a falling leaf into a butterfly. But you can’t pick the neighbors’ spring gardens clean. Look how young flowers welcome sun and rain. They bend, heavy under the water weight until they feel […]

Compromise with the Air.

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by Marissa Bell Toffoli. The edge of the world glows in the evening, enchants city buildings. Take in the view from on high. Gossamer bridges span dappled bay water, the skyline floats above foundations. You stand like a lighthouse, rigid with responsibility, signaling endlessly from your precipice. Watch as a crow swoops through the scene. […]

A Holding Undone.

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by Marissa Bell Toffoli. So, we speak of the past and the passed in whispers for their sake and our own; swing open the hinges of our chests offer flight to memory, aghast, we release these semiprecious stones. We speak well of the passed and the past afraid to let on when we feel pissed, […]

Chain Link.

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by Marissa Bell Toffoli.   Hook and line. Story reels me in though not mine to speak of. Fishing for adventure. Bravery by way of being an accomplice. I’ve stolen the facts. They worked inside me in stealth, now I’ll show you how I intend to make your life my own. As if it could […]

In Anger.

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by Marissa Bell Toffoli. Blood-orange thoughts I wished weren’t in me escape. Lashing caprices churn the sea around us. My voice goes rough and salty. Grace ceases. Personal debris— gathered, unspoken, unmerciful— rises in the swells, releases when there’s nowhere to flee. Our every deficiency floats on, increases until we find ourselves. Still here. Set […]

Whirling Winter Words.

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The Winter issue of EAP: The Magazine is up, and we had an avalanche of contributions this time. (Special thanks to Marissa Bell Toffoli, our ace poetry editor, for so graciously and competently working with all the poets who contacted us–and see her contribution, “Would, Will.”) What we particularly like is hearing from all the […]