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As It Ought To Be Magazine

AIOTB Magazine is an online literary magazine featuring poetry, nonfiction, and reviews from seasoned writers and emerging voices.

26/06/2024

The inscription became a joke:
Looking forward to memories together,
future husband.

New poem on AIOTB by Dustin Brookshire!

Breaking Up, Breaking Apart, Breaking Down I claimed the kitchen tablethat was a gift from my auntsix months before her death.You claimed the loveseat and couch,the only possessions you ownedthat h…

22/11/2023

Check out our updated poetry archives!

. . July 2023 “From this Height, Six Days Before 9/11” By Robin Wright “Time Travel” By Ronnie Sirmans “The Strip Mall” By Alexandria Tannenbaum “The Floor…

18/11/2023

and I still do not know how to reclaim
the bodily autonomy that
has been stolen from me

New poetry by Madeira Miller on AIOTB Magazine.

On Ownership My hair has always been mine and my clothes were always equal parts mine and my sister’s; my glasses are mine, even though I don’t wear them often these days. They are mine nonetheless…

15/11/2023

Just in time for Wednesday morning, a poem by Victor Clevenger

Wednesday Morning all the construction workers running about trying to wrap it all up & i’m in my black car stopped sitting smackdab in a construction zone next to summer beaten cornfields show…

13/11/2023

New poetry by John Dorsey on AIOTB Magazine!

What to Do After You Don’t Die on the Table get up write a few things down shake thinking they missed something. About the Author: John Dorsey is the former poet laureate of Belle, Missouri and the…

12/11/2023

The grackle with its blue head
dunks violently his beak

in the bird bath while chickadees
and starlings battle the squirrels

New poetry by Rusty Barnes on AIOTB Magazine !

Homage to Jim Harrison The grackle with its blue head dunks violently his beak in the bird bath while chickadees and starlings battle the squirrels for sustenance. Cars power by here in the city an…

09/11/2023

he is smiling
but I give him a Tylenol
because it is raining
and I don’t know
what to expect

New poetry by Melanie Browne on AIOTB Magazine today!

Day -hab driver I pick him up from his day hab program he is smiling but I give him a Tylenol because it is raining and I don’t know what to expect On those days Elvis, the Beatles or kidz bop? I a…

05/11/2023

When the storm arrives,
I am far too interested
in watching it unfold
to care about what’s been.

New poetry on AIOTB Magazine by Gwil James Thomas

17. 07. 2023 From the balcony – empty Taco Bell cups race down the street like hysterical kids. Hollyhocks thrash against one another in the wind. Summer is sick and I run my finger …

01/11/2023

There are the things they don’t tell you about grief.
It can be the sound of blood running across the sky
& also the softest brush of a wing.

New poetry by Hilesh Patel on AIOTB Magazine today!

Cast them into the wind We arrive at the shore eroded since we were last here & recite the first line of a prayer water is water is water. At home, my wife puts her hand on my own to stop me fr…

21/10/2023

It seemed that the new moon had politely excused herself
From the scene just so you could index the constellations

New poetry by M.J Arcangelini on AIOTB Magazine today!

YOUR GIFT OF STARS Sic itur ad astra – Virgil for Bruce Around 1 AM we bounced seven miles out a rough dirt Road, through locked gates, into the mountains to arrive At Karen’s uninhabited trailer, …

19/10/2023

The wardrobe is full of past events
for which I do not take responsibility.

New poetry on AIOTB Magazine today by Rose Marie Boehm!

On Reflection How is it done? In coloured pencils with washes and masks, blenders and frisket film. And if I take your face and mask your eyes, leave them white or fill them with ash, what then? Wh…

15/10/2023

New essay on AIOTB Magazine by Sue Blaustein!

It’s 2023, and We Still Need to Read Sally Carrighar By Sue Blaustein The late author Sally Carrighar’s work is out of print. Between 1944 and 1975, Carrighar (1898-1985) published one novel, eight…

11/10/2023

A man who admitted
to fallibility but rarely
to vices or wrongdoing,
a man so private that I
read his past in his papers.

New poetry by Ed Ahern on AIOTB Magazine today!

Gloria Mundi I am in title his executor, de facto the chief mourner. He lived his adult life alone but did die with company- a hired tender and me. A man who admitted to fallibility but rarely to v…

10/10/2023

New poetry by Larry Smith on AIOTB Magazine!

Afraid of Heights Yes, I am, and maybe you are too— vision blurs, stomach turns, ground falls away. Any bridge or ledge, any tall building or tower makes me tremble and Oh, God, never look down! Yo…

07/10/2023

“I don’t need my cane; “I just use my shopping cart— “I shop at Walgreens.”

New poetry by G. M. H. Thompson on AIOTB Magazine!

Haiku from my Grandmother I “Don’t you think we should “eat that stuff now because it “expires in five weeks.” II “I don’t need my cane; “I just use my shopping cart— “I shop at Walgreens.” III “Di…

04/10/2023

What do we see outside
except a canopy of ebony wings,
garlands of feathery smoke
moving on blackened water?

New poetry by Royal Rhodes on AIOTB Magazine today!

The Other Genesis What do we see outside except a canopy of ebony wings, garlands of feathery smoke moving on blackened water? Against the sketchy light it looks like a cancer patient showing us th…

30/09/2023

I choose yellow for the bed
and chairs. Violet for walls,
green for the window frame,

New poetry on AIOTB Magazine today by Robin Wright.

Boarding House Bedroom – After Vincent van Gogh I tell the widowed landlady, I’m an artist, and she rents me the room cheap. The colors for this room must be both bright and tranquil for me t…

28/09/2023

My will is that your claw should grab
This cat food, that your mind should stab
Its doubts and urge you, like its lab
Rat, into trying something new.

New poetry by Jake Sheff on AIOTB Magazine!

Crabbing at Nehalem Bay: a virelai After “Douce Dame Jolie” by Guillaume de Machaut My will is that your claw should grab This cat food, that your mind should stab Its doubts and urge you, like its…

23/09/2023

thin dim sun loitering behind
without noticeable intent

New poetry on AIOTB Magazine by Steve Brisendine

Notice Served Low sky, gray beneath gray, thin dim sun loitering behind without noticeable intent; aging summer drags beat-up sandals at autumn’s order to pack up its things and move on to the next…

15/09/2023

thinking about when you sold calendars
over the holidays for the local bookstore
mostly of swimsuit models
who are grandmothers now
& kittens that are long dead
& butterflies that have flown away

New poetry by John Dorsey on AIOTB Magazine today!

On the Prospect of Dying in December not the end of the year but maybe the end of your life & you don’t know if you should buy another calendar you didn’t buy the one you have now given away by…

13/09/2023

New poetry on AIOTB Magazine by Michael G. O'Connell!

On the Loss of a Daughter It is summer. The creek works its way through the world carefully, lazily, thoughtlessly. It slices through fields and forests, in sunshine and dark places, and though dar…

08/09/2023

The cast from my childhood biographies – pea plant and pigeon
breeders, lens grinders and collectors
would testify:

that you can discover anything if you’re patient enough.

New poetry by Sue Blaustein on AIOTB Magazine today!

Who Wrote the Book of Love? To discover laws, you need facts. Of course. But laws! Laws are about relationships. The cast from my childhood biographies – pea plant and pigeon breeders, lens grinder…

06/09/2023

"Carnivores love more-than-you-can-eat deals."

New poetry on AIOTB Magazine from Robert S. King!

Head Waiter A waiter hurries up, then waits. The customer is always right. Carnivores love more-than-you-can-eat deals. Their table manners grunt greedy sounds. They might even eat me who has no ta…

01/09/2023

the cornfield is now a haunted forest
of skeletal husks,

New poetry by Jason Ryberg on AIOTB Magazine today!

Scarecrow Standing at a Crossroads There’s a blackbird between the shadows of two white houses, the midnight train is a silver river of moonlight, the cornfield is now a haunted forest of skeletal …

30/08/2023

and the x-ray showed nothing but it
makes you think of Esther.

New poetry by Jean Biegun on AIOTB Magazine!

Olives I have a grocery list with olives on it. Meanwhile you have an issuance of pain aching somewhere in your left hip and the x-ray showed nothing but it makes you think of Esther. How tentative…

25/08/2023

"The weight was too much"

New poetry by Erika Seshadri on AIOTB Magazine today!

Flooded After ten days, the water receded leaving mud beneath our feet— caking our shoes, pulling us slick and sinking into memories of what was: before. The weight was too much. I wallowed up to m…

25/08/2023

and all I’m left with is just this darkness
as I float on the calmness of the water

New poetry by Cord Moreski on AIOTB Magazine!

Night Swimming After working another shift in the oppressive Jersey heat taking food orders from the privileged and counting tips so I can make my rent that just went up again any ghost from Roman …

22/08/2023

I searched the ghost town of my personal possessions
And exhumed the things I was too afraid to admit I loved

New poetry by Rocío Iglesias on AIOTB Magazine today!

How to Own Nothing When you gave me a drawer at your place to keep my things I told you I don’t keep anything except my promises, I told you the only thing I’ve ever truly owned is my heavy heart B…

14/08/2023

Even in their beauty,
these bones of winter
hold no answers,
only questions.

New poetry by Ken Gierke on AIOTB Magazine today!

Riding with Monk Epistrophy, apostrophe, brush these blues off of me. Lift me off this loneliest of roads, beyond these bare trees. Even in their beauty, these bones of winter hold no answers, only…

13/08/2023

Check out our updated Poetry Archives!

. . July 2023 “From this Height, Six Days Before 9/11” By Robin Wright “Time Travel” By Ronnie Sirmans “The Strip Mall” By Alexandria Tannenbaum “The Floor…

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