A Bright Kind Of Gray

you close your eyes and let the music take you
slowly moving your head back and forth
everything in the last two hours has come to this
a moment of bliss
'existentialism on prom night' blares around the corners
and it makes you feel as if nothing can erase
this one pure moment in time
you let the blanket covering you drop to the floor
take in the smell of a gray autumn morning
knowing that few times in your life
can culminate this way


* Best of the Issue - July 2008 winner! *

The Girl Who Almost Got Me Left Back

my sophomore year of high school
was spent chasing her through the halls
looking for a single moment
to steal with her

I can remember how oblivious I was
the poor grades earned that year
and how my focus
barely wavered from her strawberry blonde hair
the curve of her thighs
and the spattering of freckles on her face

these things made me entirely oblivious
to the nasal tone of her voice
that would now drive me to drink

but at fifteen
she was the center of my thoughts
as I planned a future with
an unwilling partner
my head was never focused

not much has changed


Kendall A. Bell is a native of Bergen County, NJ who transplanted to Burlington County in early 2001. His poetry deals with the frustration of everyday life, teetering dangerously on sanity's edge and the hope of better days. His work has appeared in numerous print and online journals, most recently Drown In My Own Fears and Zygote In My Coffee. He was nominated for Sundress Publications' 2007 Best of the Net collection. He has self published eleven chapbooks of poems. He has also recorded two spoken word cd's. He is a co-founding member of the Quick And Dirty Poets, Co-editor of the online journal Chantarelle's Notebook and the publisher/editor of Maverick Duck Press. He is a football and music fanatic and resident codger.