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with clothes decades out of date,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.

Matching coffee

Mugs in City Mission
Store:
Best Grandma
and Grandpa ever
Not needed now
Mine was someone
else’s once

Alan Catlin is a six decade warrior of the small press scene.  He has pomes in recent issue of Beatnik Cowboy, Home Planet News, Chamber Magazine and Synchronized Chaos. He has full length books forthcoming from Roadside Press, Impspired and Kelsay Books.

Corrective

Pain anointed its impression sooner
than I could synthesize its import.
As age embraced me
I learned to paw my way
to the lair of liminal space.
Not far from
the lollipop man of childhood.
Lor, making oneself scarce
is an infelicitous thought.
The finer course
is to accept the affliction.
Welcoming it is the antidote.

Sanjeev Sethi has authored eight books of poetry. His poems have been published in over thirty-five countries and have appeared in more than 500 journals, anthologies, and online literary venues. He is the joint winner of the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by Hedgehog Poetry Press in the UK. He lives in Mumbai, India.

X @sanjeevpoems3 || Instagram sanjeevsethipoems ||

To My Knowledge

Business is a perk affording 
hubris as debris. Debride the nearest
epiderm. A berm. Welcome aboard
and room in lower case.

Do you impose yourself
in absencia? Pop (poof) goes 
proof of chase. Of purr. 
A rounded cat. A tat. The calico half fact. 
Good at fractions. 

Each might picture surgical disruption.
A bus ride versus clean glide 
in sterile steel glass 
rubbed clean.

A brief history of independence: 
Leisure mood, a mode, a modular homing.
Craved once ceased to crave.
As equals. A raven grave. A graven rave.
A culture in the throat. 
Insignia to tell others oaths.

Sheila E. Murphy has a book forthcoming from Lavender Ink: Escritoire. Her home is in Phoenix, Arizona. Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Murphy