
SPECIAL EDITION
MARCH
2021
HEAR THE VOICES BEHIND THE MEDICATION
Each poem includes an audio recording of the poet reading their work
WARNING DISTURBING CONTENT
NOT INSANE (RIGHT NOW)
​
Feeble hands hold tiny pills, so much
power in the convenient size of a grain of rice.
Distorted reflection opens wide, swallows the
chemicals to hide the mania, hide the
crazy for one more day
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
Jaecyn Boné
PHOTO BY SARA DOBBIE
A Trauma Left Unresolved, Please Send Affordable Therapy
Neurotransmitters are guns and mine go automatic (I can’t put them down). My Mom
brushing my fucking hair so hard there’s no breaking a baby’s broken bones, and
I don’t know if it gets better. Empty and bored, I can’t decide if I’m empty or bored
since no new words work in any damn ink, I just live towards death and learn how to look without feeling.
Prescriptions and poems, they pair well with PTSD, but mom I already mourn your death as my mother. So put the gun down.
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
KDK
PHOTO BY RAMI OBEID
ECZEMA
​
The bow tied
dandy with the Dictaphone
smiles and dictates
his diagnosis. Later,
I weep.
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
MICHAEL MCGILL
PHOTO BY MICHAEL MCGILL
BROKE WOMAN
​
Lower Spine
Deformation
My Mind
Infestation… cracked open
Full of bugs, and the like
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
ELISABETH HORAN
PHOTO BY SARA DOBBIE
HOMILY​
​
If the Devil
invented nicotine
I guess God
did nothing
to stop him
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
MAX THRAX
PHOTO BY SARA DOBBIE
BLOOD TEST​
​
The nurse leaches blood from collapsed veins.
I bleed into her cup-of-soup,
Iron starved
Snarling anorectic,
Swirling in her spoon
And slipping down her throat.
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
NAOISE GALE
PHOTO BY CHRIS G
COMICS AND BOOZE AND LOOKING DOWN
​
I don’t have a drinking problem
But I do know
A Sponsor
Who’d be mad at me for saying that
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
SCOTT MITCHEL MAY
PHOTO BY SARA DOBBIE
ON THE PSYCH WARD
​
the details are what
weigh most on the mind: window
slats, stairwell bars, cheerful locks
to keep your spirit from
flying straight off into the sun.
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
BRIAN JERROLD KOESTER
PHOTO BY HOLLY GARCIA
NOTHING REALLY BOTHERS ME​
​
I’m better than just ok
things are all just swell
When I take my flouxetine caps
twice daily
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
JAMES LILLEY
PHOTO BY HOLLY GARCIA
HOME​
​
If people were homes;
I have only lived in ruins.
Built from beehives whispered in my ears,
created by hornets’ nests burrowed in my hands
Yearningly, achingly wishing myself away,
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
SHIKSHA DHEDA
PHOTO BY SHIKSHA DHEDA
NEW DOSAGE
​
i plant the blue pill like a lone lifeboat
in the sea of the body i’m trying to escape
& wait for the waves to wash off the dead,
but signals send symptoms of another fire
as everything just burns, wet with promise—
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
KARA KNICKERBOCKER
PHOTO BY HOLLY GARCIA
YOU USED TO LOVE 'THE DARK KNIGHT'​
​
But Batman films haven't been the same for us
Ever since
Ben Affleck took over
& you nearly overdosed
on Klonopin
at the Justice League premiere
3
years
ago.
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
SHAWN BERMAN
PHOTO BY SARA DOBBIE
ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY AND ME​
​
When they seized my brain
I thought I heard God
but it was just the nurse
whispering
It’s okay now.
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
ASHLEY SAPP
PHOTO BY HRG
WASTING​
​
five reduced-fat
crackers for lunch
and you salivate over
the withered meat
i have become