Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Little girl. You’ve carried
the burden of my name
my life, interrupted
by a car crash at my
own hands for longer
then you even knew me
on earth.

It’s time you lay down the burden
of my name, my life, my
goals that exceeded expectations
because you have surpassed
an...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I smoke to take the pain away
Hoping for better days
That I don’t have to stress
And just be blessed
What God blew my way

I run to take the pain away
Running just clears my brain away
Away of any negative thoughts
That I may have running through my mind at the time...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Shadows
(they move)

Deep breaths
(can’t breathe)

Darkness swirls
(like the madness in my mind)

Deep breaths
(can’t breathe)

Name 5 things
(but it doesn’t go away)

Deep breaths
(can’t breathe)

Tree branches caress the window
(or scratching fingers)

Deep breath...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I wanna go home
As the dusk rises
With the sun bending down
And thus, staying there
Until it begins to rise again.

In your car
With the windows down
Does light shine dim
And bright shading the
galaxy, the sky.

Racing down the street
Goes the gas smell and
the steam...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Dry, arid, desert landscape of Mojave
spartan-like, feisty under the relentless sun,
austere rock outcrops, shrubs,
wildflowers under the clear blue sky,
bloom vividly upon a thousand stars in the cover of the night.
A solid trunk of a tree, a poetry
unfurls its bra...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

T’was my last caper, a risky but weighty score:
Safe dial whirred, door popped at speed,
No chance to focus, time to take a shot,
In n’ out in minutes, so why’d I get caught?

Cops cuff’d me, then questioned me, but I didn’t break,
The files stashed, they couldn’t c...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Pain and grief,
Sadness and sorrow
Will I have the strength to make the morrow?

I fear my loss
Will forever emboss.
Can I shed this pain, no matter the cost?

Rage and anger
Are no stranger,
Especially towards the one born in the manger.

You watch your world burn
...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I was, maybe, three
years old, when my mother
said: “I challenge you to run
from here to the corner.”

And, delighted, I ran.

On my spring stick new legs,
I ran,
giving it my all,
I ran,
alongside the old stone building,

While holding my mother’s hand
and I felt t...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

The Countdown begins
When?
November 5th, Jan.6th
OR
Is it
When does the countdown end?
I have heard one question and one statement over and over
Are you better off
We will fix it
I hear words like
I am traumatized
I am wondering I am leaving
I am scared
That is not...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

When I die, I’m coming back to haunt the shit out of everyone who ever screwed me over in this lifetime.And I will be immune to your puny exorcisms. And if you’re on my afterlife shit list and you happen to get yourself dead before me, don’t consider yourself off th...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

My body isn’t a protest.
It’s a betrayal.

I’ve been trapped in here for years,
buried inside a harp seal,
wide-eyed with hakapiks overhead.
It was silent when I wanted to scream.
It froze when I wanted to fight.
It stayed when I should have fled.
My body isn’t a pr...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

It was your curves I fell in love with
Or was it the gentle branches you offered me
Vines entwining you so lovingly
Bowing over to bond with each other

You provided shelter from all around
Protection like no other
Your strength shining in your continuous growth
Wis...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Let’s just say it.
You are the lucky one, Ed.

Dying is the answer to all of it.
Life is a constant drum

occluding the lyrics.
When you die,

you have flexible hours.
You can eat all the bacon you want.

You can run red lights.
You can float or bilocate.

If allowe...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

tightrope like tied note twirl tangential tiptoe
talk | your reflection
through
twisted spun spiderweb stuck-fly absurdity
scam | your reflection

escape glass enslavement soft falsehood of fractals
fear | your reflection
is lying, what

monster haunts this fun-hous...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Me, Janey, and Jack were in the backyard
When we saw a dead man hanging by
The neck of my jump rope up in the
Willow trees, and I looked up and
Yelled at him, “What are you doing
With my jump rope?”

And he opened
His yellow eyes and looked down at us
With a crooke...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I did not ask you to build me this way
I did not ask to come back from the grave
My brain has thoughts that my tongue cannot say
I do not like this second life you gave
The only reason that you worked this trick
Was to sate your own curiosity
A doctor who works with...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I am a lost soul,
Blighted, bruised,
Condemned to wait
For what will never come.

But still, I am not idle;
I drift, aimless, through desolation—
A desert, cold and cracked,
A barren land devoid of life.

Here, hope is an illusion.
Time—wasted and worn,
A currency t...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

When my final day comes,
And it’s my turn to go,
When to the pain you’ll succumb,
Remember that I’ve loved you so.
Don’t fret, my dear,
For I have lived a happy life,
It’s all alright, my love,
It’s all alright.
Don’t bury me into the ground,
As I don’t want to rot,...

Performed by Val Cole

Sunbeam, by Amita Jayant Sanghavi

Sometimes a memory
Burns and scalds
So bad
Those moonbeams
Can’t soothe
The seething heart,
Sometimes a memory
Leaves shivers and chills
So bad
Those sunbeams
Can’t warm
The frozen heart.

Between
The moonbeams
And the sunbeams,
The ‘pre...

Performed by Val Cole

READING:

Existential Hazards of the Mythmaker, by Michelle Chen
In English class we learn how the lotus flower, native
to Guyana, is a fiction of resilience, but under keen
Chinese eyes blooms purity in the dark. Because critical
interpretation never lies – unlike climate...

Performed by Val Cole

Wings, by Angie Kinman

Give sorrow words,
Shakespeare wrote.
Lest my heart
should break.

So I tell her story to the Indigo Buntings
as they craft nests of
beautyberry and Indian blanket
in a field abloom with life.

They listen.
I think they know
my little girl who was Li...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

For my Granny, Charlotte (1932-2021)

A clear cup half-filled with water stood
on the table, glistening with anticipation.

Outside, light blue and purple bloomed from stems.
Charlotte’s careful eyes zoned in on the bush across
the street and waited for the right ti...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

How did I get here
In a place so barren
Barefoot, standing in coals
Wandering, while flesh burns
And denying it hurts
Dark love molded me unrecognizable
Clinging to the very thing that ails me
This relationship that wafts of rot
Molded at the core
How can it be
Turn...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Well, well, well, now whatever did I just see,
Chuggin’ along out on old Route Thirty-three?
A Panda Bear in a Honda – could it be?
And he was pushing a big, old, blue RV.

His paws on the steering wheel seemed out of place,
As did the fuzzy smile on his fuzzy face,...