Fire Drill

You whisper “Fire!”
At the edge of my perception
Not a shout nor a warning
Just a promise of illumination
No shadow
Each crevice exposed
“Fire!” I think I heard this…
No “calmly walk to exit safely”
No line for roll call
This is an annealing flame
Run
Not away
But into it now
Burn away the useless things
I think it was you…
Who else would care enough
To see me pure?

MH Clay lives and works in Dallas, Texas. He has a poetry page at https://madswirl.com/author/mhclay/.
His poetry chapbook, Perhaps This Rain, was published in 2007. He has published two poetry collections;
sonoffred, Rebel Poetry in Ireland, 2015 and Angst, Mad Swirl Press, 2016 with a second edition released
in 2022 (both are available on Amazon).

Luis lives in California and continues to  work in the mental health field in Los Angeles. His poems have appeared in Ariel Chart, Blue Collar Review, Escape Into Life, Fixator Press, and Kendra Steiner Editions.

HA-HA

Romeo is bleeding
Juliet’s gunned him down
Midsummer-madness
Because the night
Winter’s tale- her recovery
Winter’s tale- his redemption
In spring- bullet dreams
broken hearts of glass
it’s a Billy the kid and Pat Garrett love song
approaching one another’s heart

Mike Zone is the Chief Operator of BIONIK PU$$Y. The former Editor in Chief of
DUMPSTER FIRE PRESS. The author of over a dozen books of poetry and fiction:
SKULL MY DAISY, FUCK YOU: A FUCKING POETRY CHAP, SHEDDING DARK
PLACES (almost) & THE EARTH WAS SHAKING FOR DAYS. Along with co-authoring
RAZORVILLE with fellow poet and publisher Shannon Lynette. His work has been
published hundreds of times being featured in: MAD SWIRL, FEVERS OF THE MIND,
BLACK SHAMROCK, FIXATOR PRESS, HORROR SLEAZE TRASH, PUNK NOIR, A
THIN SLICE OF ANXIETY, RYE WHISKEY REVIEW and CULT CULTURE MAGAZINE.
He scrapes by in Grand Rapids, Michigan.