A collection of all the poetry in the fourth edition of “The Parlay” literary magazine, and a few extra “nuggets” that we just couldn’t fit into the PDF version of our magazine.
Poetry
i know what i am
By: Ash Bussard
So what if I’m a sinner?
Let my soul leak from the cathedral carved inside my chest,
Seeping,
Down,
Down,
Ash Bussard (they/she) is a student at Folsom Lake Community College. She is the midst of finishing coursework to eventually transfer to a state college and get her bachelor's degree in English. Ash has a deep passion for writing and is currently working on her first novel. In her downtime, she is usually found watching anime, hanging out with her friends, or working on new stories to write. This is her second time being on the team for The Parlay and looks forward to working on / writing for future editions as well.
Author Bio:
More poems by Ash
rosy ears nipped cold from the chill of the wind / cream-colored tights / sighs so heavenly a siren’s song couldn’t compare / satin-soaked thighs with a headband to match/ peach pits lovingly lingering on a windowsill to protect/ enchanting eyelashes hiding starry eyes / fairytale fogs sweeping silently / honeyed freckles sleeping across flushed cheeks / an empty perfume bottle with the lingering scent of jasmine and thyme /
please only use soft words
Every morning, I wake up, and the word “potential” rings in my ears–
It’s like a swift and fatal punch to the gut.
I’m not thinking about you.
Potential
Pages and pages.
There’s never an empty thought,
Yet there’s always an empty s p a c e.
Blank Spaces
This will be the part that hurts the most.
Under a strawberry moon and honey-dipped stars,
Unbound, untethered, unraveled, undone—
blossoms of the soul
Fifty-Four
Four suits,
Thirteen cards.
Fifty-four unique faces.
By: Eric Rickey
Intrusive Thoughts
Evil thoughts surround me,
Leaving only for moments,
Before returning with a vengeance.
By: Eric Rickey
Eric Rickey is an English major currently enrolled at Folsom Lake College. He has a passion for writing and often will find himself daydreaming about characters and stories he hasn’t even written yet. When he’s not writing you can often find him playing with his nieces and nephews, watching anime, or preparing for the next adventure for his DND campaign. He has had a blast working on this issue of “The Parlay” and looks forward to working on future editions.
Author Bio:
Untitled
By: Maven Hershfield
did you feel it?
the shift of the earth..
quaking out from under us - oh so suddenly
Maven Hershfield is from Chicago, IL, but they grew up mostly on the West Coast. They are currently an undergraduate student and aspiring historian with a strong interest in the impact of historical events on future human development. Outside of their writing hobbies, Maven is a regular caffeine consumer and arts and craft-er. They are always inspired by the nature around them, especially on lush nature paths.
Author Bio:
Danse Macabre
By: Julia Norris
The Universality of Death.
It has no prejudice, no pride;
only patience for a moment
no one can avoid.
Author Bio:
Julia Norris is currently a student at Folsom Lake College. She often takes inspiration from the world around her, the works she reads, and the songs she hears. She enjoys creating art in various forms and writing poetry. She hopes to continue doing so in the future.
More poems by Julia
What Will Be Left of Me?
Tick Tock
Death of a Star
My Mother’s Monster
Sculptures
I’m Better Without You
Mother Mistakes
Moth to a Flame
Pomegranate
The Charnel House
By: Aaliyah Hernandez
To the left of my memory’s chapel
thirteen paces west, three skips south,
a deep breath in, a long sigh out.
Author Bio:
Aaliyah Hernandez is a poet and writer local to the Sacramento area. She strives to explore and express the complexities of womanhood and individuality, the art of words being her vessel to do so. Her first collection of poetry, Turning Twenty One, can be found at Barnes and Noble.
More poems by Aaliyah
Five
Perception
Poem of Perpetuity
By: Paula Espinosa
sometimes i feel as though i live in a world of perpetuity.
perpetual sadness perpetual joy perpetual stress perpetual anger perpetual love
perpetual fear perpetual hope perpetual pain
Paula Espinosa is a bilingual Mexican-American creative currently in her third year of undergraduate, where she is double majoring in Theatre and English with a minor in Music. She is interested in musical theatre, costume design, poetry, jazz performance, and is an avid reader. She’s a current member of Word Tonic and a working copywriter with all the spare time she boasts of. Her previous publications have been featured in The Independent, brushing art and literary journal, and Word Tonic’s Creative Anthology.
Author Bio:
The House on La Crescentia
By: Margaux Paul
was rumored to be haunted
It is hard to pinpoint exactly when the hauntings began
or what died and did not want to stay dead.
Margaux Paul is a San Diego poet and freelance writer with an English Literature degree from UCSD. Margaux has written three short stories that were published by the Rancho Santa Fe Literary Society in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Her poetry also appears in TidePools published by MiraCosta college, as well as the San Diego Poetry Annual and HNDL magazine. She interned with The Love Story for six months, writing articles about the benefits of journaling. When she isn’t reading or writing she can be found in a yoga class, playing Mario Kart with her roommates, or enjoying a glass of wine with friends.
Author Bio:
Seared Heart of God, Served With Thorns
By: Bird Weise
I miss playing God
I miss My divine perfection
I miss My omnipotence
But most of all
My benevolence
Author Bio:
Emma “Bird” Wiese grew up in Roseville and Granite Bay with a strong interest in nature, culture, and, of course, reading and writing. Before moving to Tucson, Arizona to study English, they were an editor and writer for The Parlay’s second and third editions. They are very glad to continue writing for this edition of the magazine, and look forward to contributing to future editions as The Parlay grows.
Sweet
By: Thomas Goff
Your highest praise for any spirit is “sweet,”
Cat, dog, or human. Struggle makes it so.
Tom Goff is an instructional assistant in FLC’s Reading and Writing Center, and has performed on trumpet with Golden State Brass, Auburn Symphony, and Camellia Symphony. His poem “Blind Tom’s ‘Battle of Manassas’” won the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize for Poetry in 2021. His poems have been published in Voices 2023 (Cold River Press), Spectral Realms (Hippocampus Press) and FLC’s The Parlay, and he is represented in Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California (2018). Tom’s poetry reviews have appeared in Poetry Flash, and a review of Brad Buchanan’s Chimera appeared in the February 2023 issue of Poet News.
Author Bio:
More poems by Thomas
I’ve read how love for you ranks me with voles.
How strong desire for you reflects, not thought,
But drives lodged in grey cells, to do with goals,
Consumer greed for all I haven’t got.
Is This My Brain on Love?
Pray for the soul of our Big Fella,
Ireland’s hope—and prey—
Passing through Cork from a rathskeller,
Shot dead in the roadway.
Did you think sweet and tough can never meet
And mingle in the blood, bestow the glow
A Keen For Our Big Fella
Acute Ghettoitis
By: Isabella Caston
We're plagued by acute ghettoitis.
Ashamed to be from,
Ashamed to be proud of,
The ghetto.
Isabella Caston grew up here in Folsom, California. Soon transferring to University of Oregon, she is finishing up her last semester at FLC. She has a self published book on Amazon titled Human Currency. Her inspiration comes from the classics like Shakespere, and Greek Mythology. Other hobbies included making jewelry, reading, and everything under the sun.
Author Bio:
More poems by Isabella
In cold, rough, chains-
The goddesses unite.
The Collective of Womanhood
I was alive the same way sea cucumbers are.
I feel nothing but bliss and the sway of the current.
Tastes Like Chicken
6 Feet
By: Grace Bassler
6 feet is not that far
It’s the length of a yoga mat
It’s half of a volts-wagon beetle
It’s the height of a coatrack
Grace Bassler grew up in Solano county her whole life. She found a love in poetry to help cope with difficult times in her life. Outside of poetry she collects crystals, often paints, and loves going on drive blasting music.
Author Bio:
Spawn
By: Melissa Marion
My daughter came down to my brook
The one a mile off your road
There the trees were tall and in my breath shook
Fallen and bent, rotting and cracked
Melissa Marion is a college student working toward a Bachelor’s Degree in English. She can often be found pursuing the Fantasy section of her local library. When she’s not writing, Melissa enjoys spending time outdoors, painting with acrylics, and making squeaky noises on her clarinet.
Author Bio:
Flower Girl
By: Alexis Stewart
I am a little girl
Holding handpicked flowers,
Just an offering for my father
I want to be his everything.
Alexis Stewart was born in Texas and adopted at the age of three and has since lived in various parts of California. She is a Psychology major at Folsom Lake College and hopes to become a therapist for people struggling with Trauma, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Eating Disorders. She has found her own healing in writing poetry and often uses it as a way to expel emotion and bring attention to taboo universal experiences.
Author Bio:
More poems by Alexis
Oh Heather,
How you wish to be clever
How you wish to be cunning
How you wish to be calm—
Down heather!
Heather
These words keep rubbing at my gums
And on the insides of my cheeks—
These letters cut my tongue
With their expressions
Survivor
Crimson is the color
Of my company
A rich red running down my eyelids,
Searching for a semblance
Something like safety
The Color Crimson
I rest upon my pillow cheeks
And burrow far beneath
With subtle blues
I look for clues
Blues Clues
I'm riddled in the way that I wrote the answer before thinking of the question
And I speak in the way that words come before thoughts
The Shore
Much Haiku About Love
By: E. Edgar Weil
An assortment of haikus touching on matters of the heart.
E. Edgar Weil was born in Austin, Texas and came to California at seven years old, leaving behind beloved family and bringing along the Texas influence no one born there could ever shake. Both parents avid readers, his fate was sealed by bedtime stories as he grew into a strong reader himself and developed a deep love for arts as a whole. He never thought he'd have anything published, and never thought he'd be a poet, but the love, loss, and contemplation that inspires him has found a home in prose. He loves writing short stories, focused character studies, and begins each project by asking: "what am I trying to say here?" Other than writing, E. Edgar loves the outdoors, mechanical work, appreciating art of all kinds, and making connections with people.
Author Bio:
Ocean Breath
By: Tonya Ray
I never could specify what I felt
once about the waves of the ocean,
so large and vast, huge and daunting.
When have I seen you last?
My name is Tonya Ray. I'm currently in my last semester and will be transferring to a 4-year university in the Fall of 2024 with an associates in Biology. I plan to earn my bachelor's degree in marine biology.
Author Bio:
More poems by Tonya
The grass and the roots,
The fields and the plains,
Strived and overcame,
The kinks in our hair
The African American Experience
Distant thoughts and patterns
that I don’t recognize,
steely hands, fingers
and hatred in their eyes
Precarious
The Village Idiot Talks to Himself
By: John Helmar
I am the Village Idiot,
not a king, but just an idiot.
But I suppose one could be both:
you dance the dance; you take the oath
John Helmar worked as a technical writer for several Sacramento area manufacturing companies, but now prefers doing physical labor at a Placerville nursery. He and his wife enrolled together in many FLC classes (Horticulture, Viticulture, Astronomy & Dance), while they worked their small farm in the CA foothills. John enjoys hiking, drawing and painting. In addition, he also likes to write and sing silly songs, mainly to annoy his wife, Viviana.
Author Bio:
A Mind Crucified
By: Alyssa Jules Lozano
Ask me to spin you a web and I’ll feed you my lies.
Blessings go unnoticed
with sins disguised as flies.
Alyssa Jules Lozano, a Folsom Lake College alumni, believes in crafting poetry that comes from the heart even when it’s broken. Inspired by her Mexican roots, Alyssa dreams of translating her love for writing into the world of cinema as a screenwriter, aiming to create narratives that celebrate diversity and resonate with audiences on a universal level. She hopes that her work will comfort readers, and inspire dreamers.
Author Bio:
More poems by Alyssa
My childhood drags behind me like a body deceased
My immortal shadow
My juvenile beast
You Can Never Go Back
I am eaten
but no longer will he starve.
Sliced into pieces
my body was carved.
The Entrée
The Devil calls me everyday
but now I seldom answer
He leaves messages on my machine
His voice is a deceptive cancer.
When The Devil Calls
She goes to school to earn an education.
A seed that was planted by her family
who saw it as a form of liberation.
The Second Generation