CONCLUSION

Living beings lying prone, in sleep, or in life’s full stop,
foxes sprawled in body-bent arcs, only splattered in parts,
in the centre of roads,
pet dogs stunning the rest of the family furniture
by their sudden demise,
laid out on tarmac on a convenient plastic sheet,
even a wasp back-broken into a slippered stillness,
children back-turned on you in unmoving slumber
jabbing a finger of fear at you,
belong to a common species:
the curtailment of a hope,
a return to ashes,
the end of the boundless scamper of a pup,
and those gasps of air snatching at life,
which would never draw to a close,
and suddenly did.

Alan Hardy has for many years run an English language school. As well as Fixator, published in Envoi, Iota, Poetry Salzburg, The Interpreter’s House, Littoral, Orbis, South, Pulsar, Lothlorien and others. Poetry pamphlets Wasted Leaves (1996) and I Went With Her (2007). 

At Seven

I rose early each day
Crossed the hayfield
To the pasture creek

Where twenty-nine cows
Were dreaming
Who knows what

I joined them
And dreamt baseball fame
Painting the new Mona Lisa

Some mornings discovering the cure
For cancer, starvation, and war
Topped by a vaccine to fend off greed

While out-Whitmaning Walt.
Just before success, the sun
Peaked round the bluff.

Time to poke
These thirty dreamers
Home to their red barn.

Michael Pedretti is the author of eleven books, including Twenty Poems Written in 2020, Time to Journey Home, and The Inside Story of Movement Theatre International’s Mime and Clown Festivals, the longest running international theater festival in America. He has contributed articles to American Theater, Swiss Journal, and Mime Journal

Eliminating Shadow Cavities

Remaining… ‘Thermostat’
… whilst fluid not static,
takes both practice
and patience… not even
an “Eek!”… ‘Grace’
cannot be counterfeited.
Underneath your
self-control and balance
thrones even more ‘Calm’
… that’s completely
‘Tamperproof’… and,
causes envious saboteurs
far more annoyance,
pain and mental anguish…
than any petty squabbling
or weaponry could ever do.

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”, collection of shorter fiction “Kicking Back Drunk ‘Round The Candletree Graves”, and full-length poetry books “The Dark Side Of British Poetry: Book 1 of Urban, Cinematic, Degeneration” and “It Is Big And It Is Clever: Book 1 Of A Punk Rock Hostile Takeover” are all now available by Close To The Bone Publishing.

in nature

sea spray
a residue for the lucky
i decide as showered
standing alone on a rock
in pink moonlight
wondering
worshipping

i dance in circles now
celebrating what just is
learning to laugh and cry
alone in silence
singing to my shadow
watching days
evaporate

omen maybe
magpie peck on head
protecting next generation
smile in evaluation
applaud bird courage
forgiven quick
amused

appreciation of all
disseminates softly
with age in nature
and that itself
is an indication
of measured time
remaining

(This poem was originally published by Sychronized Chaos)

Stephen House has won awards as a poet, playwright, and actor. He’s received international literature residencies from The Australia Council and Asialink. He has had many plays published by APT and two chapbooks published by ICOE Press. His poems are published often. He performs his acclaimed monologues widely.

A HOUSE WITH GREEN SHUTTERS

It’s been years since you were
in this house but now, thanks to
the death of your estranged mother,

the property is yours to sell.
But the unreality of walking through
rooms of tired furniture, rusted

appliances, dressers overstuffed
with clothes decades out of date,
makes your hands shake, knees wobble,

And yet you lived here once.
This is where you slept, surely,
the tub where you bathed.

the kitchen table where you ate.
But it’s devoid of the one
who protected you and then

ultimately tossed you out.
So there’s no safety, no passion.
And nothing in between.

The asking price is low and bears
no disclaimers, no outstanding debts.
This house can now safely belong to anyone.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in New World Writing, River And South and Tenth Muse. Latest books, “Subject Matters”,” Between Two Fires” and “Covert” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Paterson Literary Review, White Wall Review and Cantos.

Grammar lesson

Irregardless, they say
is redundant
repetitive
two negatives
too negative.
Irregard?
Is that better?
Or regardless?
I don’t care
what they say.
I love you
irregardlessly.

Doug Sylver has had jobs as a bike messenger in New York City (for a few months), delivering newspapers on the streets of Paris (for a few days), and as a public high school teacher in Seattle (for almost thirty years). All that time he has tried to write.

Capitulation will be tomorrow’s song

Halfway through the movie, the
voice track shifts into Spanish,
the soundtrack becomes a caca-
phony of Panzer tanks while
images of them intermittently
appear that have little relevance
to the storyline. Then birds sur-
face on the windowsill, ballet
dancers replace the shots of
Panzers, & Shostakovich’s Jazz
Suite, Waltz No. 2 rolls out from
the wings to roll over & de-
molish the threatening tanks.

Mark Young’s most recent books, all published this year, are the downloadable pdf, The Hit List,
published by Scud Editions; Gravel (with harry k stammer & Mark Cunningham), from Sandy
Press; Some Unrecorded Voyages of Vasco da Gama, from Otoliths; another downloadable
pdf, Closed Environment, from Neo-Mimeo Editions; & The Complete Post Person Poems, also
from Sandy Press.

Luis was born in Mexico, lives in California, and works in the mental health field in Los Angeles. His latest chapbook, Make the Light Mine, was published by Kendra Steiner Editions. His poems have appeared in Blue Collar Review, Mad Swirl, Unlikely Stories, and Yellow Mama Magazine. 

Kiss

a weapon to pull the moon from the sky icebreakers crushing frozen seas into sharp
shards mosquito swarms with new sickness caught from cadavers alpha omega brainworm lay
larvae in hair like woodsmoke tongue hot ice tulip poplars toppled into Gulf Stream tide pools
hands tremble together fingernails growing in unison from receding riverbeds after a pause neck
caress hair back from ears another moment caught in traps of downy skin whisper skin aging
skin by seconds touching again and touching more and more to come

JB Malory is a writer and musician based in the Hudson Valley region of New York. Since 2008, JB has released music and toured with the post-punk/industrial band, Pop. 1280. He has previously lived in England, New Zealand and China. His fiction has appeared in Terraform.