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


WINTER 2016 ISSUE


CHEATERS (3)
by Michael Lee Johnson

I am tired of cheaters
online, weary eyed crossword
players complicated chest moves
drift dancers, lies, laid soft peddle,
shared pillow, dark closet dreamers.
Campaign gossip whispers,
infidelity, sex objects shoved up orifices
in open or private places.
Sex shops open late, consummation
nightclubs, cities dark corners.
Two doctrines of selfishness
you should know about
penises and affairs most are short.
Flesh and fights, scabs, cheaters in the night.






Tete a Tete in
the Safeway Aisle by Christian DeLaO

TÊTE-À-TÊTE IN THE SAFEWAY AISLE by Christian DeLaO





FAMILY VISIT
by David Thornbrugh

About the warring toilets
and the danger to the children,
the less said the butter and the bread.
Under the sheets in the eyes of the neighbors
like a birthday cake frosted in sea foam.
Not to be a floor show is a low bar of desire.
We could make love under the sheets
or start a war while the cameras run down the stairs
and the surly child says "I'm not sure I like you."
There are no arguments under the sheets
we can't settle by smashing the neighbors' telescopes
taking advantage of our windows.
I could call you curtains and draw you closed
but that would block the light of reason
under the sheets, the blood red sheets
that hide all errors. Some days,
feeling smug is all I'm good for.






WHATEVER by Ruben Briseno Reveles

WHATEVER by Ruben Briseno Reveles





AND ONLY INFREQUENTLY
by Holly Day

We exchange pictures through the mail because words
aren't good enough. The passage of time is explained
through the faces of strangers, in the pictures of children
only known in person as tiny, warm babies
coiled and asleep, newly born. The envelopes

also contain pictures of people I know
but older, grayer, tired. My sister's gap-toothed smile
has been replaced by the tight grin
of a woman with perfect teeth
standing next to her own family – her goofy college sweetheart
is now a man holding hands with a toddler.
I put pictures of me, my children, their father
in a similar envelope
seal it without looking

without wanting to look
still in denial that time
has passed at this end as well.






CITY AND MENS by Katy Brown

CITY AND MEN'S by Katy Brown





HALF LOVE
by Adam Phillips

they cut you
off of me – lightning twitched in a hot black sky –
the face of the sky snarled – He

wrapped a strop around my heart, threw
it like a stone – my heart
tumbled slowly, a stone through blood, for you my

missing half, I spun with one
big eye, half lips, I dread

to think

what you may have

been going through.

Somehow,
I traveled a great distance

to a swamp – I sat, my

half, watching lightning strike
germs into fish and
fish into men – The gods felt bad. I heard half

my name. You

had a son – I had
another one –

The sky unfurled
and slapped the ground –
an altar, a cistern, a man
in a robe the light

shone on – I felt exposed, my half, my

bad side – your half
of the universe called

my name – I fought
through a cloud – where did all

these people come from –
my hair
burned – I kicked in the air.

you were a blade
fulgurating on the horizon – my story
has gone on too long












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