Behind 

Behind on rent.
Behind the dumpster.
Behind the name.
Behind the lectern.
Behind my back.
Behind the rumour.
Behind the eight ball.
Behind the smiles.
Behind the couch.
Behind the mask.
Behind you in traffic.
Behind windshield wipers.
Behind the times.
Behind the spices.
Behind the plot.
Behind the register.
Behind the curtain
with nervous actors
that forget their
lines.

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.

Preoccupations with nature 

The cat waits for his food but doesn’t eat it 
The sweet gums are old already
The sun is early 
My moustache is grey 
The marigolds won’t admit it 
Mom and Dad have borrowed teeth 
The word between two anxieties 
is called the specific epithet 
The word is mollify

Or mind numb

Or sour milk

Daniel Cartwright-Chaouki is a gardener and writer from Birmingham, England. He writes about trees and plants (mostly) and people (sometimes) and other unimportant things. His work has featured both in print and online including Pulp Poets Press, Lunar Sea Literary, Fixator Press, Password, The Lake, Sextet, Alocasia and 100subtexts magazine.

THEFT OF VISION

2:12AM.
Surprise fog
shrouds all in silk.

Theft of vision
quickens the steps.
No echoes—
clouds augment
true aloneness.

Still, you can’t help
pausing at the door—
half-expecting to meet
the ghost of your lover,
or your murderer.

Jack Phillips Lowe is a proud resident of the Chicago area. He has contributed poems and short stories to Piker Press, Clutch 2026 and Synchronized Chaos, among other outlets. Lowe’s most recent poetry chapbook, Brautigan’s Blue Moon, is available from lulu.com. 

Between the Cheeks

Molars chew the smoked
succulence from steak
like red grapes stomped
to Cabernet till a tongue
unaccustomed to culinary
pleasure rolls the remains
of beef down the throat
faster than a speeding
bullet, wrapping a wedge
of meat around vocal cords
so, no one can hear the word
of mouth reviews, nor
the stifled roar of the beast
gagging in the raw swallow
of a glutton oblivious to
the grind of gastronomy.

Tony Pena was formerly 2017-2018 Poet Laureate for the city of Beacon, New York. 
His new book of poetry, Triad, is available on Amazon. His work has appeared recently
with Alien Buddha Press, Cajun Mutt Press, Drinkers Only, and Rye Whiskey Review.

Running Towards Color

Out of the dark places
sheep hide in bottomless closets
where sleep is a nocturnal haunt
as urban crime moves toward
new surroundings

Look at all those arched
brows, frozen and contorted
with bewilderment—questioning:

“Where did we go wrong?”

But I have my secrets
hidden in well-kept books,
wandering from room to room,
dreaming of that pot of gold;
new digs, and locks that actually
work as desperate sirens
surrender to peaceful night

Richard D. Houff is an award winning author from Austin, Minnesota. He currently lives and
writes out of St. Paul, Minnesota, where he edited Heeltap Magazine and Book Publishing from
1986 to 2010. His poetry and prose have been published in numerous magazines, and
periodicals. His most recent collections are Little Histories, from Anvil Press, and Shaking Hands
With The Dead, from Dead Man’s Press Ink.

Requiem For a Childhood

Looking forward, into the past,

a forest rest in our children’s

dream and those southern moss

strewn oaks, those lazy pines a

babbling stream, it’s now faded,

vanished within suburban sprawl,

oh, those orange clay lanes, now

covered with asphalt and the country

store, where a penny could purchase

a confectionary empire, alas; our

rotted out milk white fragile teeth,

and our parents’ disdain at those lofty

dental bills.

Wayne Russell is a creative jack of all trades, master of none. Poet, singer, artist, photographer, and author of the poetry books “Splinter of the Moon” and “Waves of Lucidity”, both published via Silver Bow Publishing, they are both available for purchase on Amazon in paperback and digital formats such as Ingram Distribution at your local library.

BOHEMIAN SOUL

Bohemian Soul
No Overlords
Freedom & Democracy

The Past 
Still Remains

In The Future

For We Are The Caretakers
Of The Human Race, The Earth,
The Skies & The Seas

The Denizens 
Of the Underground 
The Keepers Of The Peace

Unchained
 
Bowing Down To No Man
No Monsters
No Kings

Burn Down Our House 
And We’ll Rebuild It
We’ll Tear Down Your 
Swastikas And Knock
Down Every Racist That
Insults Our Being

Like Walt Whitman

With A Protest Sign 
Standing At Every Corner 
Of The Earth

For Are We Capable Of
Violence?

Yes
If Necessary

For To Be Free Means
To Stand Up For Every Single 
Mortal
Soul

Every Animal
Every Human Being 
And Every Breath Of Every 
Creature

For Humanity 
Shall Not Cease

And Our Numbers Only Grow
And Multiply In This Place

Poets
Artists
Accountants

It Doesn’t Matter Who
We Are Making Our Path
Through This Burning World

Our Voices
Our Fearlessness

Stands

And Never 
Surrenders

Bohemian Soul
No Overlords
Freedom & Democracy
 
The Dream Of A World
That’s Better

That Lives

That Cares

And Against It All

We Shall Win
And Cannot Be

Defeated

R.M. Engelhardt is an American poet, writer & author whose work over the last 30 years has been published in a wide number of journals and zines. He currently lives & writes in Upstate NY and is the Editor of the Small Indie Poetry Press Dead Man’s Press Ink. His new book of poetry is entitled “The Dying Time”, Published by Valhalla Shelter Press 2026 and is available now.

Frank O’Hara

i once read his words
while standing in front
of a painting
of his face
most of
the witticisms
were in french

no wonder
the steelworkers
in pittsburgh
just go
to the movies.

John Dorsey is the former Poet Laureate of Belle, MO. He is the author of several collections of
poetry, including Which Way to the River: Selected Poems: 2016-2020 (OAC Books, 2020),
Pocatello Wildflower, (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2023), 100 Mornings, (Sacred Parasite, 2025),
and Trump Stamp, (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2026).

Intermission

Every morning the curtain goes up
I open as a young man,
with frequent and worsening infirmities,
medication for blood pressure, cholesterol,
blood thinners for AFib – and coffee.

The senses are atrophying like the limbs,
I avoid any strenuous activity,
rehearse, find a seat and avoid mirrors.

New is what is important, entertaining.
The past, time, young, old, even lately,
are not issues, as youth projects itself
into the next, the space directly
in front, today’s stage.

My parents were old, now long gone,
don’t preoccupy my day any longer,
but they are visiting lately in dreams.

Jergens eases the contention of the parts,
and Visine takes the paste out, so I can see to
move out of the way of the now,
the tip of the pen – read today’s lines.

The curtain goes down, even the vibrant
need a nap, there is a faint applause
from the rear seats in the balcony,
and a reminder to take an Ambien.

(Originally published by Constellations, December ‘24)

 

Craig Kirchner has been nominated three times for a Pushcart, and has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels. He’s been published in Chiron Review, Fixator Press, Main Street Rag and more than 100 other journals. 

You Know I’m Right

You could work 900 years if you wanted.
In some of the worst hells in the land.
Toiling away like busy magpies.
Gnarled hands and shrivelled hearts.
Shoveling shit for some big-time shit farmers.
And never once complaining, didn’t the Stoics find idiot peace
in such silences? I’m sure they did, like broken latches
on dirty lunch pails. Work a thousand years, hell, make it
two thousand just for kicks!  I’m telling you now,
it won’t make the least bit of difference.
No one gets ahead.
They simply get older and die.

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.