Oscar

The feature is finis.
The dim lights come up.
The audience sloughs to the exits.
My movie, always ending,
skin and hair, all those cells that leaving,
make us new every seven years,
becomes part of an endless population
of scurrying crowd, swept up candy wrappers,
exiting coupes, of seats being refilled.

The sequels while technically
more sound, die quicker.
There is a smell of stale popcorn.
The crowd led now by orange floor lights,
seems tentative, lost, strangely morose,
as though this new feature,
including the edit on the cutting room floor,
is confusing with its hidden meaning,
will not be winning this year’s awards.

Craig loves the aesthetics of the paper and pen, has had two poems nominated for the Pushcart, and has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels. After a hiatus he was recently published in Decadent Review, Chiron Review, The Main Street Rag, Hamilton Stone Review and several dozen other journals.

Drowning In Circles Around You

There is simply a Cathedral of Possibilities.
Emotional undercurrents stalking the predator,
which urban fox dens
the shadowy-side of my palpitating soul.
There is a thrumming ‘Sense’
rather than a ‘Sound’ of orchestral music,
emanating from the magnificent friction
caused by you swishing the environment…
whilst barely even being conscious
of the havoc you’re weaving and aftermathing.

The arrogant ones could lesson-learn from you,
but they won’t, they’re too…………. yawn!
You’re a shining sixpence in the gutter
to dirty, starving, beggar eyes.
‘Pretty’ is such a ‘Cute’ little word
and you own Both heart-ribbon-tied together.
In your Presence, both disastrous and soothing…
there’s a tramline off into the sun-setting distance
where once there were only prison cells,
the backhand of monotony, and grey factory walls.

Paul Tristram is a widely published Welsh writer who deals in the Lowlife, Outsider, and Outlaw genres.  He wrote his first poem as a teenager following his release from the (Infamous) Borstal ‘HMP Portland’, and he has been creating Literary Terrorism ever since. His novel ‘Crazy Like Emotion’ is now available by Close To The Bone Publishing.

Dissection

Glossemes of grief amalgamate  
on an ocean of opportunities
granting me a carbon copy
of my stated position.
 
I am ahead of the game
when I seek
rapprochement with self.
 
When I ignore
the delegation of denigrators
for sempiternal truce,
I am akin to a happy hashhead.

Sanjeev Sethi has authored seven books of poetry. Published in over thirty-five countries, he is the joint winnerof the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. Highly commended inerbacce-prize 2024 for poetry, UK, with over 9000 submissions worldwide; Sethi lives in Mumbai, India.