c o n v e r g e n c e:
an online journal of poetry & art


SUMMER 2018 ISSUE


POEM FOR KATIE, QUEEN OF OHIO #50
by Darren C. Demaree

I understand why the room
craves the corners,

but I will never understand
why the construction

of Ohio is nothing but corners.
We are people that are a result

of field parties. Does that
smell of a fire gone out

not frighten anyone else?
Kathryn, I'm not telling you

to burn it all down. I'm telling you
to light every fire you can.


Under Over Through by Kyle Hemmings

UNDER, OVER, THROUGH by Kyle Hemmings



SAINT LOUIS
by Henry Goldkamp

Brick teeth
muddy the water,
shine silver
the Monument.

Brown hid from the alley,
its kitties & graffiti;
sunk a riverfront,
the last grassy bohemia.

Detroit gives good shoulder rubs
but can't hurl that brick high enough
over hundreds of steeples close to clouds.
No one can, kid or clergy, blue or not.

Crumbling concrete idols stay tan & silent,
spying on styrofoam cups in St. Mary Park
while history bellies in the bricks.


GIRDED by Ruben Briseno Reveles

GIRDED by Ruben Briseno Reveles



CONCRETE
by Paul Smith

In Los Angeles
There's lots of concrete
Going straight up
In the high rises
Spread out flat on the expressways
All that concrete
With no place to go
More concrete than
The people
Jammed in here
More than the palm trees
More than the tuna in the blue sea
More than all of
The names of God
And after a long hot day
In Los Angeles
That doesn't really cool off
The concrete doesn't either
It sits there smoldering
Having punched a one-way ticket
To stiffness
In that concrete mixer
As it gets harder with time
Making it even more immobile
Can't go to Vegas
Or Frisco
Or the cool high country of Tahoe
It's stuck here
And late at night
You can hear it
Simmer and fuss and whimper
Noises you thought might be
Traffic
Or the swimming pool compressor
It's concrete weeping for itself
And everything in it
Sand
Gravel
Water
Cement
Crammed into this tiny space
Too small
Sobbing collectively
For all they could have been
Had we not come along





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