snide

Isn’t that
what you really
came to see? The
penetration of
the unwilling
instrument of your
derision by any
sharp instrument
of choice. Or do I
need to phrase it
for you in a
different way?

Mark Young’s c. 650 paged, 20 years in the making, new book, The Magritte Poems, is due out
from Sandy Press later this year.

Fourth Time of Asking

skidding sluicing sometimes
flat-out tumbling
touching the sides for comfort
guide or guile
not to arrest the fall
but give it shape and sense,
even if its pattern
is a kaleidoscope of stained glass,
constantly reinventing its credo

until flush with success
our boy leaves the short slide
and dives not swims
into deeper brighter waters
where eels smile upon
each other to see a brother
so finned and flushed

haul himself from the brine
surmounting the steps
to try the open air,
with no guarantee that this time
the pool will be filled

– that the eels will enjoy
what he deep dives to tell them
and not only move in
for the kill

Ian Mullins ships out from Liverpool England. His movie-themed poetry collection NightWatchman (Alien Buddha Press) is now available, as is Fear Of Falling Backwards (Cajun Mutt Press), released in 2023.

Oscar

The feature is finis.
The dim lights come up.
The audience sloughs to the exits.
My movie, always ending,
skin and hair, all those cells that leaving,
make us new every seven years,
becomes part of an endless population
of scurrying crowd, swept up candy wrappers,
exiting coupes, of seats being refilled.

The sequels while technically
more sound, die quicker.
There is a smell of stale popcorn.
The crowd led now by orange floor lights,
seems tentative, lost, strangely morose,
as though this new feature,
including the edit on the cutting room floor,
is confusing with its hidden meaning,
will not be winning this year’s awards.

Craig loves the aesthetics of the paper and pen, has had two poems nominated for the Pushcart, and has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels. After a hiatus he was recently published in Decadent Review, Chiron Review, The Main Street Rag, Hamilton Stone Review and several dozen other journals.

Drowning In Circles Around You

There is simply a Cathedral of Possibilities.
Emotional undercurrents stalking the predator,
which urban fox dens
the shadowy-side of my palpitating soul.
There is a thrumming ‘Sense’
rather than a ‘Sound’ of orchestral music,
emanating from the magnificent friction
caused by you swishing the environment…
whilst barely even being conscious
of the havoc you’re weaving and aftermathing.

The arrogant ones could lesson-learn from you,
but they won’t, they’re too…………. yawn!
You’re a shining sixpence in the gutter
to dirty, starving, beggar eyes.
‘Pretty’ is such a ‘Cute’ little word
and you own Both heart-ribbon-tied together.
In your Presence, both disastrous and soothing…
there’s a tramline off into the sun-setting distance
where once there were only prison cells,
the backhand of monotony, and grey factory walls.

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’ is now available by Close To The Bone Publishing.

Dissection

Glossemes of grief amalgamate  
on an ocean of opportunities
granting me a carbon copy
of my stated position.
 
I am ahead of the game
when I seek
rapprochement with self.
 
When I ignore
the delegation of denigrators
for sempiternal truce,
I am akin to a happy hashhead.

Sanjeev Sethi has authored seven books of poetry. Published in over thirty-five countries, he is the joint winnerof the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. Highly commended inerbacce-prize 2024 for poetry, UK, with over 9000 submissions worldwide; Sethi lives in Mumbai, India.

Down and Out

A skinny little path
through piles of trash

around broken-down buildings
and a park full of homeless tents

back along the railroad tracks
the horizon still showing a way

where dreams at night
still ignite the hope of change

tears running down
into little streams full of peace.

Stephen Jarrell Williams can be found on (X) Twitter @papapoet...  Write what you have to write, while we still have the right.

A Museum of Farm Dogs

the sun displays their bones
fine & long
torn & tattered
a land of
wagging tails
that roam across the grass
like a tumbleweed on fire
you say a prayer
to the ghosts
while the bluster of a strong wind
reminds you of a dead friend
who is no longer there
to scratch
at the door.

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),
Sundown at the Redneck Carnival, (Spartan Press, 2022, and Pocatello Wildflower, (Crisis
Chronicles Press, 2023). He may be reached at archerevans@yahoo.com.

Dissimulations

Never have comebacks weaponized concepts
as sharply as recent conversations with self.
We cozen ourselves better than all the con
artists on the mean streets of urban sprawls.
Indentations on maple leaves of malefactions
emphasize their impact on the itinerary. One
is plugged in and perceptive enough to keep
away from the scree of flagitious intent: short-
lived slip-ups are constituents of the construct.
As yurt of prolificacy anchors itself in the desert
of reason, cloudbursts elect to desert me.

Sanjeev Sethi has authored seven books of poetry. Published in over thirty-five countries, he is the joint winner of the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. Highly commended in erbacce-prize 2024 for poetry, UK, with over 9000 submissions worldwide; Sethi lives in Mumbai, India.

Dark Familiarity

My suit still fits.
It hangs in the dark closet
next to an old white shirt
and tired gray silk tie.

Two hours past my bed time,
the wine bottle dribbles
a bit more than a sip
into the fingerprint stained glass.

Getting up slowly,
I open the squeaky cabinet door.
I take a vitamin B Plus and an Aleve
with that last sip of wine.

Turning off the lights,
I feel my way to the stairs.
This is a different darkness –
Now, it has no end.

R. Gerry Fabian is a published poet from Doylestown, PA. He has published five books of poetry: Parallels, 
Coming Out Of The Atlantic, Electronic Forecasts,  Wildflower Women as well as his poetry baseball book,
Ball On The Mound. 

Convocation mountain

The school of forest medicine has
a thing for strumpfhose & those
initiation rituals of the medieval
guilds such as a slew of bobble heads
or zany ukulele ephemera. Its origins
are unclear. Some scholars theorize
long-term synergistic relationships;
others hold up ink-riddled feeds that
brim with the hashtag #QTTR & claim
itinerant tattooers are the points of ori-
gin. The regents call for calm, adhering
to their belief that all will be revealed
when the time capsule tucked behind a
plaque in the Cathedral is opened in 73
years. Until then, the only diktat is that
any & all balloons are to be prohibited.

Mark Young was born in Aotearoa New Zealand but now lives in a small town on traditional Juru
land in North Queensland, Australia. His most recent book is One Hundred Titles From Tom
Beckett, with paintings by Thomas Fink, published by Otoliths in June, 2024. His The Magritte
Poems will be coming out from Sandy Press later this year.