Featured Poet SS 2019
Julianne Fern Basile, 27, is a part-time barista and human rights activist from South Jersey with a lifelong passion for reading and writing poetry. As an addict in recovery, she found the strength to stay sober through exercise, meditation and excessive amounts of caffeine.
Pills
Pills were my powdered sadness
I lost my childhood friends to madness
Who grew up walking miles of codeine
And overdosed like scattered roadkill
Across the untended curbs of innocence.
I do things, and go places,
I never meant to do, or be,
Nailing dead goldfish to the wall
In well-meaning plastic graves
Just to remind myself
Of my mistakes.
Coming Back
You ask me, "Where were you?"
Well, darling,
I was flying across freeways, greeting skylines,
Crossing rivers, hopping state lines,
And parking in alleyways,
Yes, parking in alleyways,
All to find pieces of myself that I'd lost along the way.
All so that when I got there, I could be whole for you.
To view more of Julianne’s work from this issue pick up a copy.