by Sylvester Kwakye
Before you kiss a reptile, be sure your lips are dead.
before the picnic started,
a viper had kissed her calf
but she kept discussing
how it tasted
her endurance
was soon a heart attack
a face filled with rivulet
of demise
that little creature was gone
forever. to begin a new life
our doubts saw its burrow,
but couldn’t catch it.
my sympathy couldn’t do
a heart transplantation
but this poem gave her a bolus
of IV fluids
not like a physician would,
but a carpenter
it deconstructed thoughts of suicide
& fenced a life
with slabs from a broken promise
of yesterday’s love.
A Petal Darkly
by Beth Horton
Sylvester Kwakye is a Ghanaian medical student and author of Flying From Nectar To Hive,a full-length poetry collection. His poems have been published or accepted for publication in Writing Woman Anthology volume three, New Note Poetry, Metachrosis Literary Magazine, and Cool Beans Lit.
Beth Horton holds a degree in creative arts therapy, and she majored in health science at Niagara University, in Lewiston, New York. Her love for art began as a small child, watching her father paint into the wee hours of the morning. In addition to abstract art, Beth enjoys photography, mixed-media composition and sketches. Her work has appeared in several publications, including Aji Magazine, Club Plum, Olit, Months to Years, and Pensive.
Ignatian Literary Magazine 