Multivariate Melodies
(a Tom Beckett Title)

Pattern analysis will be employed
to investigate those onset-related
brain responses that occur when
a more abstract dimension of pop-
ular music is introduced. Basal
ganglia — the areas commonly
associated with visceral pain —
are involved which overshadow

the true nature of a key change or
an out-of-key pitch, the usual
markers of an anomaly in any
music acquisition. No longer can
nootropic supplements provide the
mental energy throughout the day
that is needed to complete an audi-
tory scene analysis of polyphony.

Mark Young was born in Aotearoa / New Zealand but now lives in a small town in North
Queensland in Australia. He has been publishing poetry for over sixty-five years, & is the author
of around seventy-five books, primarily text poetry but also including speculative fiction, vispo,
non-fiction, & art history. His most recent books are the downloadable pdf, Closed Environment,
from Neo-Mimeo Editions, Nualláin House, Monte Rio, California, & The Complete Post Person
Poems, from Sandy Press, Santa Barbara, California, both published in March, 2025.

I’ll burn that sheep when I get to it

I don’t count sheep;
I set them on fire.

Sleep is like a friend
that won’t tell you why
they left—so,
I burn through my eyelids
and eventually, my brain
leaks out of my sockets.

The sun casts a cruel spotlight
on my charred sweaters;
the aroma of smoke follows me
back to the moon.

Megan Diedericks writes poetry and fiction, everything from meek to macabre can be found in between the lines. She self-published her poetry collection: the darkest of times, the darkest of thoughts (2022), and a second book is in the works! (TBA, Island of Wak-Wak). Find more of Megan’s work at https://bit.ly/megandiedericks

Something foolish and crude

drunk at a party
on rum with white wine,
with beer and with not
enough sandwiches.
I collapse, spiral down
like a bird in siberian winter;
atumble through feather
and frost. I fall, and remember
my yells in the kitchen;
said something interesting
and followed my point
with something more foolish
and crude. I remember
the sink, and the dishes
like buildings with an ivy
of long-finished dinners.
life passed. a duck
flinging doppler
through guns. my friends
quite embarrassed. my wife
just as much as my friends.
glorious. sparks flaring
on firelit paper – a lobbed candle
and throbbing hot grease.
when they put me to bed
I’m still very much
clowning. my eyes
long tunnels, full of cars
striking cars.
things spun.
the eiderdown
on my legs
is beautiful.

DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as “a cosmopolitan poet” and another as “prolific, bordering on incontinent”. His work has been nominated thirteen times for BOTN, ten for the Pushcart and once for the Forward Prize, and released in three collections, most recently “Noble Rot” (Turas Press, 2022)

conglomerate telegram

hot flash it’s sticky in this stop
darkness nuclear rat n
trenchstopcoat flay alive stop
huddled the protect masses of
pulverized antithetical object
devices stop the senseless stop i
have no hot flash true identity
stop i have no hot flash voice of
my own stop

(This poem originally appeared in ‘Clockwork Cat’, 2024)

Scott C. Holstad has authored 60+ books & has appeared in the Minnesota Review, Exquisite
Corpse, Santa Clara Review, Chiron Review, Long Shot, Southern Review, Poetry Ireland
Review, miniMAG, Eulogy Press, Horror Sleaze Trash, The Argyle, Bristol Noir, dadakuku &
Blood+Honey. He’s moved 40+ times & lives near Gettysburg PA.

PROLIFIC

Lascivious snakes slither through
unwashed hair, drop eggs in ears.

Thoughts hatch that would make
you blush. I do not comb adders out.

They burrow into my brain. Derailed
mind train scatters boxcar contents

onto the laptop screen: recall bits,
quick quip, suicide note by a friend

who took both gun barrels, cocktail
recipe, saved fortune cookie scroll:

‘Don’t expect to find one right way
to make yourself more creative’

Glenn J. Armstrong was just at home at both CBGBs and a monastery. His work has appeared in
the Beatnik Cowboy, Rye Whiskey Review, Piker Press, and others. He lives in San Diego.

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many mounds of snow.  His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Fixator Press, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review.

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.