Exterminating Angel Press

Creative Solutions for Practical Idealists.

poetry

Confession.

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by JW James.

 

how long she asked will I be your Muse

my dangerous ex and I sitting side-by-side on West Cliff

the horizon bared its teeth

there is no other I told her let me walk

a block a year another lifetime and still I’ll carry you

when I look in a mirror

when I remember a dream

or suffer a storm of nightmare

you’re in that 80’s music that didn’t last

in all the wine I cannot swallow

that space between breaths where god’s supposed to be

but I have no god I have a muse

in the pizza box you not pizza

you have filled in all the empty spaces, Muse

because you were tender and rough

my reckless blessing

I ended up with a muse not a lover

longing kaput jack of hearts inebriated

that paradise

that fall from grace

Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse.

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by Sean Murphy. You want to make a living? Go into accounting. Want to be around lots of money? Work in a bank. (Want to have a bunch of money And not work especially hard?) Rob a bank. Want to make a living as an artist? Give the people what they want. Want to make […]

1966, NYC; nothing like it.

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by Diana Morley. Walking down Broadway on a sultry June evening going to an off-Broadway play with a few friends. I wear a long white cotton nightgown with embroidered yellow flowers. We sweep by two guys weaving, waving bagged bottles when one stares at my gown and says, “Oh, I do believe an angel has […]

Fragmentary musings on birds and bees.

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by Cliff Beck. My skin, nose and eyes sense trillions of photo-electric stimuli which my mind will synthesise and simplify to create blue skies, warm bread; every experience that fills my head with memories, generating thoughts, intuitions and future visions. But the more I think the more separated, more complicated I become sat in my […]

Condemned to Relive.

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by Benjamin White. The nation is built on false narratives Orchestrated by the unquestioned facts Operating on the poor reflections Manipulated by historical Understandings of the benevolence Created by the projected image Hollowing out the scene of honesty Fabricating the nostalgic comfort Of time and place that never existed – Remembered in the longing for […]

Power Gratifies Itself.

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by Benjamin White. It appears History is irrelevant When memory stretches All the way back To a few minutes ago, Forgetting and overlooking The cause and effect Of important events And situations As reactions And responses Operate in a void Where power Gratifies itself

My Last Word.

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by Lana Hechtman Ayers. This red room is coming to an end. See how the overhead bulb flickers? You insist on baking bread but I have no time for crumbs. Allow me to sink into violet chimes as my shadow grows deeper. Some will gossip about sonnets, others about Sonny Rollins on sax. All curiosity […]

All at Sea.

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by Cliff Beck. Sailing eastwards under a clear sky towards yet another day that once seemed so far away we follow the stars we have always known to steer by. I stand motionless at the prow between the bow wave which, like the treasure trove of memories saved from my journey to now, grows ever […]

On the Cusp of 77.

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by David Bolton. Take a gander at what came and what’s to come In the meantime, seek the amber of the setting sun After a day at the screen. my strained eyes hunger for beauty Along the way to no destination, I say hello to strangers, commenting on the perfect weather, the absence of crushing […]

Dead Moose In The Road.

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by John Grey. Cars in both directions stop. All drivers share the same helplessness. A deep ditch stands guard on both sides. There’s no getting around the corpse.   There are not enough of us to move the thing. A few lean over the unfortunate beast. Some turn their heads out of respect One suggests […]