Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

They put their finger to your lips
And say it isn’t what it is
As the journalist just wins a prize
And the candidate is making speeches
As the military reaches
The borders of the other side
History turns the corner
The stories have grown taller
And our memories are ...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Bright eyed lady, spin the thread, sew the flag
Fife and drum marching across the land
Hear the creed in far off places
Democracy’s seed, Lady Liberty
Needle skipped, would’ve cried for a penny
Rain fell, the liberty tree, into the lock, the treasury key
Out of mind...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

We sat so still no one knew that I was beginning to come unglued
I thought I should reach down to tie her shoe
I stole a kiss from her cheek she caught a teardrop sipped a drink
It froze in a place until she let her hair down
We view the flowers growing outside each...

Voice Over: Val Cole

POEM:

You have no spirit you have no warmth
When you’ve heard the lock on the door
Listen to what your sorrows are
Tell me is it you that leads me from dying, rage and fiercest grief
Be alert the snakes lie at your feet
Is there any other who suffers so hard a fate?
And si...

Poem by Val Cole

POEM:

They say,
I should have been stronger —
like bones aren’t meant to break
under the weight of a stranger’s hands.

Like I wasn’t already fighting to hold on
while he took pieces of me,
one by one,
until the mirror became a place
I could no longer stand to look.

They say,...

Poetry by Val Cole

POEM:

I.

How heavy the tires that drive you
Through fireworks in the street.

How plain the lies that hide you,
The blood and myth behind you
Is nothing new to me.

Beautiful I find you,
To wrap two legs around you,
Surrounded by the safety of my fear.

Steady, love reminds...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Your love isn’t something I would willingly give away.
I wouldn’t dare make a mistake, so that your love would decay.
They say I’m on a leash, but I wouldn’t care anyway.
Your love is for me like a flower on a rainy day.

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

The rules are simple, and simplistic
(but not as much as War).
Each territory holds a name,
descriptive and endearing:

Central America; Ukraine,
Middle East; Siam; Congo;
each has a border with the other,
colored and separate.

The plastic men, with tiny guns,
atta...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Give me wine and the ocean, and hyacinth hair
A casket of flotsam and crystalline care.
Speak of the currents in deep fluid blue and bring to the surface a mirror of you
Hers is the wave and quickening tide, touched by the moon I secretly hide.
Give me wine and hyac...

Performed by Val Cole

When broken-hearted Melody Notting comes face-to-face with her ex-boyfriend at a beach, she makes the moment a first step on her journey to
independence.

Women's Fiction/Contemporary Fiction

Performed by Val Cole

A Haiku Collection, by Jiel Narvekar

1. Heart Shaped Box

Once handled with care.
For contents were prized treasures.
Silly me, I laugh.

2. Childhood’s end

Childhood’s end looms near.
Not quite adults nor children.
On the cusp, waiting.

3. Postcard

Eagerly await
The ar...

Voice Over: Val Cole

Artists Can’t Die, by John Ganshaw

It is raining now as it was then
The pitter-patter on the roof
Will it never end
Today is a rebirth of the man he is
To leave the past, let a new life begin

All had planned so much for this day
When a devil wished for him to fail and go ...

Voice Over: Val Cole

POEM:

I’m scared that I’m a narcissist, by Kailah Peters

But really I think I just like myself
For the first time in 25 years
And this shit is wild

Like I used to introduce myself with sadness first
And now I lead with laughter
Because I’m laughing all the time

I stand ...

Performed by Val Cole

Voice Over by Val Cole

Life after Bob, by Roy Smith

I wish I had a bosom
I would not put my fishing lures there
Rather, money from a friend for dope or rent
folded like an origami chicken so it would poke and itch
not slide to my belly button
A stash for Belle Lettres, you know, notes from fore...

That Unspeakable Thing, by Daniel Thomas Moran

When, in good time, a thoughtful person reflects,
There can be no subject to confound us like sex.
Which had one singular apparent intention,
But wound up with more than one can mention.

We begin misconstruing the endless inferences,
That day we re...

Voice Over: Val Cole

The Art of the Possible, by Vijay R Nathan

www.VijayRNathan.com

On Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait of Barack Obama

The waves of gray hair, forehead shines
over creased brows. Flowers emerge
from green tableau: from chicago,
from Hawaii, from Kenya.

The leaves wrap around the fe...

Voice over by Val Cole

The Things that ruined my prom night, by Brianna Corona

1. Pine needles sprinkled down like confetti.
2. -prom closed with reflective confetti.
3. Scattered rocks that shine [ motor oil.]
4. -black out/black liquid, everyone has different prom nights.
5. [deafening. ] Wi...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

For Gregg 1946-2023

When the boulder exploded
everything came at me—

your car keys a bar of soap
that stroked your skin yesterday

your pillow scent hurtled past
I couldn’t grasp it

blast wave gut punch
blast wind

spiking lightning
from a burned-out god, signs

o...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Though I cherish
the quiet I have earned,
there are days I miss
the whisper of animals
all around me

Youthful energy
bounding in,
I’m easy to please
I’m easy to forgive

Nervous purr, saying
Do what you must,
just be quick
just be gentle

Next come the sick
cradled...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Inspired by Li-Young Lee’s “Early in the Morning”

Before the paperboy
delivers the news,
Before the sun has broken the horizon,
Before the coffee machine starts
the morning brew–

I sit on the bed,
run the ebony comb
through my matted hair,
and listen to it snap th...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I just can’t tell you exactly how much
I love looking at your sexy body,
And how badly I want my hands to touch,
And my lips to kiss – I am so naughty,
Wishing to be with you, and hoping you
Would make my wild desires come true.

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I write a lot about intimacy. I write about my understanding of it. Using cannibalism and feasting as metaphors for sex. About bruises and teeth as symbols of love. Of fighting and commitment, all things both cruel and kind. But what I don’t write about, is the empt...