by Marcus Clark

Hallowed halo bright and burning turning ever
Fingers licking the azure depths
Together spreading
Like a ribbion, now a scarf that was flung
Frozen and hung there
Just for a moment, changing hues
It amuses us
but that it could last and not fade away
Stay awhile longer
Orange then pink, lavender I think
Sinking into deep purple
Slow as a disease yet swift as a breath
It's death awaits
It's gone now, an almost forgotten score
There'll be more tomorrow

by Marcus Clark

It was a useful type of felling in my belly
First as an awareness then a feeling like jelly
Anticipation turns to Panic whilst a search commences
but in downtown Denver there are not hiding fences

One store after another refuses my advances
I turn down an alley to take my chances
Maybe it's just number one and not the second try
I squeeze between two dumpsters and open up my fly

Wishing these stores would allow a persons natural tendencies
I give my innards a little pressure being thankful of these allies
uncontrolled waste releases with cramps
I stand there humiliated because I just shit my pants

by Arnie

Just as sure
as the
Soltice
comes
year after year on

by Christine Schaffer

The blackness falls seeping
slowly
Figurative decay crumbles
piece by piece. Growing
pains no matter the age,
The older you get the more they sting
Having faith could work but trying
words
Try to deceive your eyes ears &
heart,
On the bottom trying to climb back
up.
It's so easy to get stuck and get
comfortable
But it all gets stale like bad air.
Don't stop believing God has a 
plan
 The choices you make always decide your fate.
 Even though you're in despair my
  mom taught manners
  Didn't yours?
   Just because you're given a title
   does that mean 
     You have to live up to the name?
     Yes you may not have a home but
      The confusion of where you are is
      just a mirage
       Home or not home... homeless?
       Home without but don't forget to 
        take care of yourself!
         Then again I know that's that's why I
         have been put here because
          I am learning for the first tome in
          37 years
           How to take care of myself.  All the
            smoke
            In the mirrors and facades this
             place
               Is like the Garden of Eden full of 
               Forbidden fruit and snakes. Only
                people
                Who look at it through God's eyes
                 can survive and 
                 Get through the high wading waters.
                   Please 
                   God don't let me drown.  I value you
                     first and foremost
                       Along with Jesus.  Is it possible to
                        find the truest kind of love with a man
                           In this crazy world I have brought
                             myself to?  I believe
                              Love is the answer
                                           I believe 

unknown

            Close to the bone
            Yet so far from home
           Wrought iron fences
          Spring wind dried sheets
         Angel food cake cools
        in the window
       Red earth pressed
      into the tread
     of my sneaks
    I settle here
   And Travel there
 But never felt
at home anywhwer

by Randel Loeb

by all of us

No bigger than a New York minute
You lived your life of pain
Cancer the cause, methadone the cure
A double mastectomy could not end it
So small and quiet until ya got
Riled
I spent the better part of
All last winter getting to know ya
You told me about your parents
And Denali and your home state of Alaska
Of your success in Boulder
Until ya got sick
When I’d complain about the paper
You’d say
Go start a new one
Instead of Indie I always called ya
Destiny
Somehow I always got it wrong
But Independence ya were my destiny
For these words that I write
Are printed in the paper
Through God’s grace you helped
Start
I’ll never forget you Brittany
I mean that from the bottom
Of my heart
from,
all of us

Saturday night I go to E-shelter.
All I want is to sleep.

5pm file in line,
Maybe it’s raining, cold or just fine.
6pm we’re in, finally dinner time.
7pm we’re on the bus, the whole process a huge fuss.
They ship me out of town to Holy Rosary on I-70.

8pm we’re settling in. 
I don’t know the names of any of these women.
70 mats on the ground. I go ahead and lay down.
9pm lights out. No more cigarettes. 
70 voices silenced, not another word, go to bed.
I’m in need of a home, I’m not a little kid.
I’m not 10 but these rules make me feel like I am.

10pm I cannot sleep. The lady on my right talking in her sleep.
The woman on my left smells overwhelmingly of dumpster and dead body.
My head is here, under another’s unmaintained feet..
My soul feels empty.

11pm I fall asleep. 4am lights on comes early.
I arise to women who are angry. 
They are verbally abusive to each other, sometimes they threaten me.
They hate this life, therefore they hate each other, this includes me.
30 women standing in a line, trying to get in one bathroom to pee.
There are no shower facilities.

Sometime between 5 and 6am they return me to town, to my resources.
I am free again.
I just spent 13 hours getting 5 hours of sleep. 




I head to Civic Center Park to try to get some sleep.
Sunday night and tomorrow I work.
Minimum wage day labor starts at 3:45.
Being shipped out of town to E-shelter is not an option for me tonight.

I find a group of trusty street friends and the migration begins,
Across town to find a good hiding spot to lay down.
8:30pm near work we hit the hay.

12:30am a spotlight in my face.
A cop telling me I have to go away.
Move along to where? is all I can say.
I wasn’t bothering anybody. Officer why did you wake me?

He admits he’s only doing his job.
He’s not bothered by my trying to sleep.
He’s a man that understands.
He offers a ride to E-shelter but I can’t.
I need to work to pay child support.

1am I cannot sleep,
Worried another cop will find us, find me.
What if the next cop is not so understanding?
My street friends console me. 
We are a family born from poverty.
They understand all we want is to sleep.

3:45 am, time for work. 
I’ve lived outside for two years.
Waking up under the stars is preferred by me.
I wake up next to family.
They protect me from everything but the cops when I sleep.

I roll my sleeping bag up.
My soul does not feel empty.