i. Daniel

Crows are numerous beings like
crowds in the city,
sooner or later they
steal you with their gaze.

No no, I’m not saying they’re owls, just
that their beady eyes watching you like hawks,
they should have ‘crow-like’ instead.
and maybe, they should have them outlawed.
(I think crows are smarter than owls)

Crows and crowds, crowds and crows,
ravens, never, never, only ever crows.

ii. mindmeld

destitution,
substitution, indiscretion,
impression, isolation, depression.

your song is not for
listening, I am trapped in
rusty harpsichords.

game of alliance,
suppression, oppression,
defiance.

iii. Jason

wrap up, da capo,
take it from the beginning,
steel whispers, gold lockets
and hockey masks.

fold up, against the glass
it blocks the morning sun
drift in poppies of red, blue
grey, gregarious in their disposition.

skin cold to touch, like ice,
fingers scrubbed,
red and orange
as the peel washes off,
landfills raised to the fallen.
the poppies sway.

open it up, da capo,
take it from the head,
chopping boards,
and hannibals.

iv. mindmeld

destitution,
substitution, indiscretion,
impression, isolation, depression.

she sings like broken
guitar strings, shrieking loudly,
music to my ears.

game of alliance,
suppression, oppression,
defiance.

v. Melissa and Mildred

A direct statement (isn’t that what you asked for?) I’m sorry,
Sir? Sir? Are you there?
I wrote a poem on the subject instead. So
Can you hear me? Sir?
here we go:

Silver, silver’s good, it kills werewolves, looks awfully shiny too, shiny silver, made of
A couple of mice down the back alleys–
Euphoria, you’d feel happy with shiny things, they’re absolutely hypnotising, is that my locket?
I insist you remove them! Annoying,
Tick-tock, when I snap my fingers you’ll be a clone, hello? Are you
Zarking voices, open and close, close and
Ready? That blank stare is starting to creep me out–but,
Open, yes! Down the back, that way
Aha! You are in my power, subliminally creeping to your doom
Past the Kwiksave.
Are you sure you wouldn’t like to phone home? Have you–
Have you lost your way? Excuse me, sir
Become extraordinary in some way? Beam you up? Sure?
Really, you’ve got to remove them, their very
Existence is scaring the sheep. Sheep? Yes the sheep,
Not the voices, no, they’re not afraid, just
Irritated, they can’t wait for a
Cure, hey, thanks for the arsenic.

Don’t let me stop you.

vi. mindmeld

destitution,
substitution, indiscretion,
impression, isolation, depression.

wondrous rainbows seep
in and out of my window
as the sun rises.

game of alliance,
suppression, oppression,
defiance.

vii. Boscoe

screams in bubbles not as runny
as a tremendous quatch of funny,
piled with drops of money.
floating in the air.

I went dancing off somewhere
loaded with guns and pears
hastily clothed in glares
and sparkles of ice.

there’s no outright price,
for being completely concise,
I tried to break out twice,
and failed.

so I was re-jailed,
to halted clockhands nailed,
soon enough derailed
by a rainy day.

I turned a ghostly grey,
entreated us to pray,
whispered “cuio mae”

but it was much too sunny.

viii. mindmeld

destitution,
substitution, indiscretion,
impression, isolation, depression.

Inked promises, drip
upon a failed eulogy,
I have mourned enough.

game of alliance,
suppression, oppression,
defiance.

ix. Edward

On my discerning palate
In Crewe and at a time distinguished,
Rests a lonely locket.

I have knees blistered from pants
And fancy dresses.
I am indifferent to
Prophets and oracles,
Opinion and gestures,
(what are they but words in the dark?)
and yet,
I have a most effeminate locket.

It is most certainly not my own
Unless I have elected some new paradigm
Within archaic tombs of medieval kingdoms
But I live in the Millenium,
as unsullied as this is pure gold,
A perpetuity so unlike diamond
In its metal wisdom and brittle
Inside parchment.
‘For Faith. From Jason.’
I do not know a Faith.
I do not know a Jason either.

As I rack my brains the candle becomes the sun
Runny and old in its cantankerous ways,
A boundary of semantics and temperament.

A crow perches outside my window.
I briefly consider this enigma,
And engage my synaptic capacities
In these shadowy theories
Of karma running over dogma.

There is a crow outside my window.
There is a locket on my plate.
‘To Faith, With Love, Jason.’
I do not know a Jason.
I do not know a Faith either.

x. mindmeld

destitution,
substitution, indiscretion,
impression, isolation, depression.

She has a
Mona Lisa smile, which
I think would be so cool,
if she wasn’t going to eat me.

game of alliance,
suppression, oppression,
defiance.

xi. Faith

A lifeless thing but now alive,
A ghost that only comes in fives
A shadow in the daily path,
As these we stand at last.

I know the mountain, rocks and seams,
I know the old man’s nightly dreams,
Are not dreams at all, I know this now,
With this I stand at last.

We know this beauty, things of ours,
Hold the clock and ticking sour
Hearts in blazed unions smile,
With these we stand at last.

I know the mind, its cracks and ways,
I know its poison’s depths and haze,
Are we not here, with these footfalls,
With these I stand at last.

Left for dead, we claim our lives,
With solemn hands and broken knives
With raven hands and nevemores,
With these we stand at last.

A ghostless thing but now full-formed,
A lifeless thing has been reborn,
A lantern takes the shadow’s place.

Here we stand at last.

xii. altogether

destitution,
substitution, indiscretion,
impression, isolation, depression.

game of alliance,
suppression, oppression,
defiance.

-Azuire//lastfactor&c.