tsm

a mix of poetry, short stories, prompts, and creative writing poetry: www.allpoetry.com/tsm

[outofboundspress]

Stowaway, by returning contributor Taissa Sati, is one of several beautiful and powerfully emotive poems in our Hibernation Issue.

You can read Sati's work along with our other incredible artists in Issue 1 or Issue 2 of Out of Bounds!

[tsmwrites]

Rest easy

Friend, Find solace in the aches - Every crack in the marble of your knuckles Tell your story

Know that you’ve lived for an infinite, That you are enough And always have been

Friend, Rest easy now—  Let your head lay Soft, on the feathers of your bravery

Do not flinch at your dark shadows The rising sun will chase them away If you let them

Friend, Give yourself the mornings Again and again and again

[weltenwellen]

Andrea Gibson, "DEPRESSION [VERB]", Lord of the Butterflies

[tsmwrites]

yours in mine

When hands meet— an accidental brush of fingers upon wrist, tips upon pulse— it is not fire

Not ember to lungs, unrestrained fervor, but the warm thrill of nerves— the cracking of dawn on a cold autumn morning

It's slow— an unfurling of blooms, a promise beckoned past lips of Sundays well spent

[outofboundspress]

submissions for issue 3: metamorphosis are now OPEN! send in your art and writing!

[tsmwrites]

The same knees that Begged amnesty, Suffered lashes from the rosary, Ripped by thorns of rose bushes,

Crawled to your altar— An oasis to sand-flecked lips— Bent to a new gospel, Exonerated between the Pews of your church

False gods are dead— All my prayers, Blood-soaked vows, A breath of whisper— Now offered to your Lipstick-smeared mouth

@nosebleedclub day 21: repentance

[outofboundspress]

We are pleased to share Issue 2 with our readers! Our 12 contributors shared their works inspired by our theme of Hibernation.

Issue 2 is now available in both print and digital formats through our shop! We're delighted to share some truly incredible work from new and returning contributors alike.

If you'd like to be featured in a future issue of Out of Bounds, check out our website for updates on our open calls.

[nosebleedclub]

What do you reach for in the dream?

[tsmwrites]

was it always this close? did it only take the moment fingers uncurl, for the gentling of clenched fists, to reach out and touch it?

when they speak of peace they make a mockery of its lullabies, the fracked oil pouring from their mouths, the chorus, a scream of barbed wire, cracking like a whip, whistles from the missiles falling, prayers drowning in a sea of blood

we were never told it could be like this, an embrace away, on the other side of shut eyelids, found in the exhaustion of hope, the outstretch of understanding

[tsmwrites]

It peeks, reluctant, through soft, pink clouds (a promise whispered) greeting blush and the thunderclap of pulse, with a familiarity that crawls— all thumb pads and a gentleness which hushes

@nosebleedclub day 11: restoration

[tsmwrites]

The inevitability of darker mornings accompanies the westward gale, chills the marrow, centers in the spine, all quivering thoracic vertebrae, as shadows settle into a lamenting rhythm

The hum of your breath like cicadas at twilight twitching upon skin, furious wings beating against left ventricle, lung-filled longing

Stretched across darkness

@nosebleedclub day 1: darker mornings

[tsmwrites]

Fissures crackling skin, knuckles swollen, weathered joints, you tenderize your love in the procession of drying

Your pores sing mercy beneath tightly braced carpels— the salt-calloused wounds curing them with devotion

They slumber for weeks, sun-drenched and compressed, against the howling gales

Tsunami rips, An unveiling flood— that the words you couldn’t speak look a lot like fish eggs

@nosebleedclub day 29: fish eggs

[tsmwrites]

Peel

You don’t relent— You peel

Savage— Claws to clavicle Divots torn Flesh from bones The shame Of my grit Beneath your nails A torrid affair

Yet I soften— Palms To garden bed Water to seed— You grow me A shade to Banish the fears

So unravel me— Undo the chains Untie my nerves Uncover what’s beneath— A fury of Want @nosebleedclub day 28: peel

[nosebleedclub]

How long has it been?

[tsmwrites]

how long has it been how long since you touched that nerve bent it to your will like crooked branches casting silhouettes across the window sill how long has it been since the dust settled there undisturbed

[tsmwrites]

When the goose feathers spill from your throat I catch them as they fall And they feel like the soft side of hope (Don't think about the side of blades Heavy as a guillotine)

You gave me a single bleeding heart

And it looked a lot like mine Always ready to fall

@nosebleedclub day 11: circling

[tsmwrites]

lake house

The attic echoes the shrieks and laughter that follow a particularly loud thunderclap as the girls fail miserably in their attempt to break curfew in secrecy. Still, they press on with their farce, hushing one another as though it could cancel out the screams. There are more important matters to which they must attend. One of them blows layers of dust off a heavy wooden board, filling the tight space with the remains of things long past dead. It is a humble offering for the spirits as they are beckoned to respond to the wills of their captors.

@nosebleedclub day 5: lake house

[tsmwrites]

You had shown up at my doorstep—pupils blown, skin blotchy from exertion, stains from boysenberries coloring your fingertips like a sunset in watercolor. You were breathless and your question came out all at once on the exhale, amitoolate? You were—you were months late, a millennia; you were the exploding supernova a billion lightyears away and I only ever saw you brilliant. There were days when all I thought of were your hands upon me, of what it meant to be perennial. Until I learned of brambles. Your fingers still left bruises anyway.

@nosebleedclub day 4: boysenberry

[outofboundspress]

issue one of out of bounds is available now! thank you to our incredible contributors for their amazing work. we are very excited to share our inaugural issue with you now. full pdf and print edition are available for purchase here. enjoy & stay tuned for information about future editions.