Long Train to TomorrowLand

Escape ticket
past city traps
oversized cracks and dumps

slump sitting
one-way getaway
counting the clap of miles

train full of the swaying
beat and lost
stumped and staring out the windows

heavy eyed
heart choked
remembering the pick of yesterdays

nothing the same
blood drops curdled
popped and swallowed

sound waves from miles away
piercing screams
past and future dyings

old men numb
old women sobbing
both in a slow death bob

young people wired
robot mauled
squeezed by invisible claws

sky trails of smoke
everything vibrating
rust dust continually sprinkling

paper money near worthless
rolls of copper pennies near priceless
robbery schemes considered

sleep dreams spotlighted
giving wacky meanings
mostly unintelligible

hope
an ancient mystery
giving the moon a slit smile

and the train keeps moving
down the line leaning
to one side then the other.

Stephen Jarrell Williams often starts a poem with his fist, and slowly opens it to the sky.  He is on (X) Twitter @papapoet.

Yearning 

Our article of faith
was first betrayed
when we chose
to cold-shoulder it.
There was no written document,
only inhalations
of its essence.
 
To the eyes, we have 
dressed the damages.
The cuts are cauterized.
Sores are sterilized.
In the archives of our minds,
the unwritten
text is a remembrancer.

Sanjeev Sethi has authored seven books of poetry. He has been published in over thirty countries. He is the
joint winner of the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. He was
recently conferred the 2023 Setu Award for Excellence. He lives in Mumbai, India.

After Reverdy

Into the void
of nowhere land
I cultivate absent thoughts
from everywhere I have gone.
I give sleep walking a chance
without dreaming,
without keeping time.
I am the abyss.
I am the mayor of nowhere land.

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. 

The Lesser Of

I was put on hold
which became a pattern
a holding pattern
like above the landing strip at the airport
in inclement weather
aloft
and circling
in theory
it could go on forever, or at least until the plane
runs out of fuel
which means
being on hold
quickly becomes subject to
plummet
the receiving end of which I'd rather not
be on
at all

Jay Passer’s poetry first appeared in 1988 alongside the work of William Burroughs and Wanda Coleman in Caliban magazine. He’s been included in print anthologies and online publications worldwide and is the author of 14 collections. A lifetime plebeian, Passer has labored as dishwasher, barista, soda jerk, pizza cook, housepainter, courier, warehouseman, bookseller and mortician’s apprentice. Originally native of San Francisco, Passer currently resides in Venice, California.

My Catalog of Obsolete Lonely Sounds

First, the old-fashioned dial tone,
zenith of nothingness.
Who invented that?

The almost-silent radio
after Country Carl’s
   sign-off prayer

Jazz singer fading to needle hiss
as the victrola winds down
In an empty room

I will leave off the train whistle,
though it inspired
many a fine old song

At the tone, the time will be
three a.m.
exactly.

Trish Saunders writes poetry and short fiction from Seattle. Her work’s been published in many
places, including The Rye Whiskey Review, The American Journal of Poetry, Eunoia Poetry
Review, the late lamented Fat Girls Review, and other places. She appreciates them all.

Depleted Empathy… And Snap Decisions

I function much better
without the Burden
of Explaining
every slick Manoeuvre
over-shoulder
to the… slipstream.
Tight as 12 whiskies,
yet, as Clear as Pain
… there’s
purposeful ambiguity
in the cards on Show,
the one’s chest-close
are Covert, Loaded,
and as Sharp
as Diamond Needles.
It’s Dot-To-Dot time,
in reverse…
unpicking the stitching
of previous conversations
… pushes the Future
further… away…
until ‘Rut-Stuck’
within a recycling Hour.
I’ll wager your Gamble
comes back with Teeth.

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 out by Close To The Bone Publishing.

On the Radio

they give away tickets
to 3 dog night
& the little river band

at 47
you think
to yourself
they gave away
the same tickets
when you were
in high school

you thought
they’d be dead by now
or at least silent

the car window
half rolled down

birds singing

the only music
that never
gets old.

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.

The Pacific Ocean

is of Scandinavian
origin, & is about
to undertake a
tour of several
cities south of the
Mason-Dixon line
with a show in
which it enfolds
local polypeptides &
assigns musical notes
to mathematical
algorithms. Tickets
go on sale at the
beginning of March.

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 almost sixty-five years, & is the
author of more than sixty books, primarily text poetry but also including speculative fiction,
vispo, memoir, & art history. His most recent books are a free downloadable chapbook of
visuals & poems, Mercator Projected, published by Half Day Moon Press in August 2023 &
Ley Lines II, recently published by Sandy Press & available through Amazon. Several more
books are scheduled for publication this year.

It Naturally Follows

Southbound on I-35, and an electronic
billboard off the right shoulder promises

twenty-five grand in reward money
for helping catch one of the city’s
                               MOST WANTED –

but then it shifts, just as I pull alongside,
to a yee-haw promo, shouting neat-beard
               face and all, for something called
                               OUTLAW DAYS

              which of course makes me wonder
                            Have you tried looking there?

Steve Brisendine lives and works in Mission, Kansas. His most recent collection is To Dance with Cassiopeia and Die (Alien Buddha Press, 2022), a “collaboration” with his former pen name of Stephen Clay Dearborn. His work has appeared in Modern Haiku, Flint Hills Review, Connecticut River Review and other journals and anthologies.

Factory Direct

She pulls at the bed covers
with a limitless anger.
I pull back, tuck the cover under
my shoulder and knee.
Make a sort of cocoon.
The big bad world waiting outside.
Full of piss and shit and vomit
and vinegar.
My place at the machine coming
factory direct.
Some minimum wage shitkicker
that has you by the balls.
Knowing you need the job more than
the machine needs you.
She tugs at the corners again,
lets out an irritated moan.
The sleepless red numbers of the
alarm clock burned right through my
throbbing head.

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.