Motionless by A.J. Huffman

I lie awake in bed, eyes unfortunately
open, watching night revolve
around me.  Human moon dial,
painfully aware of every glaring
second’s tick, I talk to the hourly
change of shadow-guards
that blindly stripe ceiling and wall,
appropriately mimicking cell.
The sun is the key I covet.
I dream its teeth devour me, burn
me, turn me into effigical outline:
sole victim of time’s maniacal onslaught.

A.J. Huffman has published nine solo chapbooks and one joint chapbook through various small presses. She also has two new full-length poetry collections forthcoming, Another Blood Jet (Eldritch Press) and A Few Bullets Short of Home (mgv2>publishing). She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her poetry, fiction, and haiku have appeared in hundreds of national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, Bone Orchard, EgoPHobia, Kritya, and Offerta Speciale, in which her work appeared in both English and Italian translation. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press. www.kindofahurricanepress.com 

Six Little Monkeys by Carolyn D. Elias

We drink wine from soup bowls
and laugh at our purple faces.
Six little monkey face giggle on the floor,
waving our arms like bat wings,
tumbling over ourselves.
We are busy making up secrets
until someone gets tummy ache.
It is late, the stars are yawning
we straggle home in pairs
forgetting mittens along the road.

Carolyn D. Elias is a poet who lives with her husband in Hancock, Minnesota. Carolyn's work has appeared in Sassafras Literary Magazine and East Jasmine Review. Her poems will soon be published by Lunch Ticket and on the Apeiron Review website. You can learn more about her at www.carolyndeliasauthor.squarespace.com or follow her on twitter @CarolynDElias.