Enough
By Cassandra Bona Corsi
I stand barefoot on my cold driveway, alone.
I scream to the stars in the sky, pretending they are listening.
I ask them if they know who I am,
Why I am nothing unless a boy says he loves me.
I ask them why I am still Depression’s prisoner,
And Anxiety’s bitch.
I ask them why I let the bitter taste of coffee-
Fill my empty stomach.
Why do I continue to disappoint my family,
My friends,
Myself?
I ask them if the waves of happiness will ever stay.
I ask them if I continue to sew myself into other people-
Will they all rip out the stitches.
I ask them if I will ever write about something other than pain.
Will I ever be more than a line in someone’s life story,
Or will I always be a background character?
I realize I am kneeling on the pavement of my driveway.
Every breath feels like knives in my chest.
I whisper one last thing to the stars
I just want to be enough.
Featured Poetry
Bus Driver
By Kese Chartier
On the evening commute I said to you,
Driver, I'm not sure
you have my best interests at heart.
This ride is unpleasant,
and the destination doesn't look like home.
You've taken streets with which I'm unfamiliar,
and the landscape looks hostile at best.
If every passenger is equally important,
are any of us really important to you at all?
You tipped your hat to me and replied,
"Shut up and sit down.
I'm trying to drive this thing."
Morphosis
By C. Payan
My spirit is a hurricane; molecular, transmogrified
A violent bout of thundersnow; ionized, electrified
And even though my spirit is haunted by that shadowed Nevermore
By that gaunt and ghastly raven that stalks the ghost of Baltimore
The molten fury flows, the ember spark it grows
And it glows in my bones and ignites the heart of stone
I am alone, forsworn, dashed by my own hands
A specter roaming, an errant being in those lands
Yet I am an inferno, a twisted blade set aflame
A towering inferno, you will know be by my name
And though I may be but a transient being in this life
In this strife, I continue onward toward that mountain peak
I seek a destiny chosen with my own broken hands
A future among these broken lands
And the sands of fate, the imperceptible roar of time itself
Can not stop me now
A Night Upon the Mortal Sin (villanelle)
By Gabrielle S.
It seemed the farther we drifted the more my head would spin
I was intoxicated by the softness of your face
As the pinpricks of light danced across our skin.
Oh Darling, what bliss is this? I thought with a grin.
My dress was off white and I was as delicate as lace.
It seemed the farther we drifted, the more my head would spin.
Your practiced hands navigated my body as though the helm and I were kin.
Who cared what would come after this moment, in this place
As pinpricks of light danced across our skin.
Desire took control, and I tried to remember how did all this begin?
Our bodies molded together from the heat, a feeling I will never erase.
It seemed the farther we drifted, the more my head would spin.
Like a boat riding the waves we rocked together on the satin
Sheets. The stars, heaven's eyes, watched from space
As the pinpricks of light danced across our skin.
Our silence was enough to confirm what we both felt within.
I smiled at the thought of what we committed on the Mortal Sin
It seemed the farther we drifted, the more my head would spin
As the pinpricks of light danced across our skin.