Ashley-Elizabeth Best

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Keep the Corpse

She’s a bower bird,

young, supposed to be pouring in bone,

losing it instead.

The most irreversible action.

Strip the muscled layers, grow smaller.

She’s her own shelter, a sleeping plant.

Pages: 1 2 3 4

1 Comment

1 Comment so far ↓

E says:

February 5, 2012 at 5:18 am

These are very beautiful. Don’t let ENGL @ Queens change you.

Reply

About Best

Ashley-Elizabeth Best is from Cobourg, ON, Canada. She has been published in Stuart Ross's anthology 529, by Carolyn Smart in Lake Effect Five, The Changing Image, and The Antigonish Review's Poet Grow-Op. Recently she received an honourable mention at the Dorothy Shoemaker Literary Awards in Kitchener, and was on the poetry shortlist for the 2011 Matrix Litpop Awards. She has a short story forthcoming with the litzine Metazen and poetry forthcoming in the Red River Review, In/Words and Fox Chase Review. During the summer of 2011 she is blogging for Kingston's Writerfest. Currently she is completing her BA in History and English at Queen’s University in Kingston.

Poetry

Ahasuerus

Zachariah Wells

It was a colossal case of crossed wires.
When he stopped to beg a drop of water,
I misheard him. His mouth was gummy,
there was a horrible hubbub and my ears
have never been quite right. I thought he asked
for a pair of sandals.

Read More

Drama

*Donne in

Yvette Nolan

Night. A man stands on the railing of a bridge, looking down at the water. He leans out over the water hanging on with one hand.
Sound of a car door.
Max enters behind Donne.
Max:Huyah!!
Donne:Aaauch! (he grabs the upright, clings) Christ!
Max:Couldn’t do it, eh? That was your big chance.
Donne:What the hell are you talking about?
Max:Could even’ve told yourself it was an accident on the way down. In case you’re a Catholic.
Donne: I’m not - I’m not - I wasn’t going to - (pause) I was chased up here by a dog.
Max:A dog.
Donne: Yes, a dog.

A Drop of Coffee

Sifa Asani Gowon

This is a bad idea, she told herself. Maybe you should forget it and walk away while you still can. The pride in her rose to the fore, the taste of it metallic in her mouth. Meeting him was a last ditch effort to get things right- right for her and for Nadyezhda.
She rubbed her palms on her silk skirt, whether to smooth out imaginary wrinkles or wipe the sweat off, she was unsure. Her right eye was starting to twitch; an annoying effect of nervousness and one she had tried vainly to erase. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Relax Salima, she told herself, it is unpleasant but it must be done.

Art Quote

It takes a long time for a man to look like his portrait.

- James McNeill Whistler

Gwenaël Bélanger

Art

100, rue Blainville Ouest
- Gwenaël Bélanger

Thank You

Volunteers for Issue 11

For copy-editing this issue of MTLS thanks:

- Lequanne Collins-Bacchus

Acknowledgement

MTLS is grateful to Jetioluwa Olafimihan (Cotta Red Creative Studio) for her hard work on web development and management.

Dedication

To the memory of Stephen Potts