Crow’s Feet By JL Huffman

life etched

            crows kettle
            a scavenger squadron
            carrion hunt

sorrow and joy

            roadkill raccoon

            restive crows circle
            ravenous

indelible

            murder of crows
            talons tear tissue
            dismember Death

–

JL Huffman is a retired Trauma Surgeon/ICU doctor with three published poetry books Almanac: The Four Seasons (2020), Family Treasons (2021), and Voyage: Vista and Verse (2022). Individual poems have appeared in The Pharos, Asahi Haikuist Network, Haiku Dialogue, Poetry Pea, Cold Moon Journal, The Pan Haiku Review, Meat for Tea: The Valley Review, Paddler Press, and others. Website: jlhuffman.com; Twitter: @JoanHuffmanMD

the middle of a thunderstorm by J.J. Campbell

i remember you called
me in the middle of a
thunderstorm
you were playing the
mixtape i made you
and a song made you
laugh
you called me up to
thank me and twenty
minutes later we were
both reaching for a
towel
i don’t think people
understand the pain
when all the memories
you cherish are with
a lesbian that has
moved on forever
now
i remember when
i was younger
i thought of losers
as the glue of society
now i’m older and
truly know
i’m the fucking glue

–

J.J. Campbell (1976 - ?) was raised by wolves yet managed to graduate high school with honors. He's been widely published over the years, most recently at Cajun Mutt Press, Synchronized Chaos, Horror Sleaze Trash, Mad Swirl and The Beatnik Cowboy. You can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)

Mirrorground Fair Narcissus By Kushal Poddar

(To Steve Sassmann)

In the funhouse mirror, stuck
in those infinite births,
I see the distortions of me.

Fairground grass eats my ankles,
so do
the ice follies and other narcissus.

I touch the glass; it gurgles, streams
a river of whisky;
under his distilled breath the ticket man
says that I can cross it
but for that charges will be extra.

This year too, I may not dare.

–

Kushal Poddar, the author of 'Postmarked Quarantine' has eight books to his credit. He is a journalist, father, and the editor of 'Words Surfacing’. His works have been translated into twelve languages. Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe

Dazed at Midnight By Richard LeDue

Staring at the darkness with my glasses on
only to see a premonition
for my future: the way unkissed lips bite
at the night, fingers stinking of pennies
rolled alone on Sunday mornings,
ears tasting the blackness,
which sounds the same as an empty chair
during breakfast, and my snoring
ruining no one else's dreams.

–

Richard LeDue (he/him) lives in Norway House, Manitoba, Canada. He has been published both online and in print. He is the author of nine books of poetry. His latest book, “It Could Be Worse,” was released by Alien Buddha Press in May 2023.

My insatiable appetite By Eric Chiles

I blame it on a big family.
There were nine of us
and never enough food.
Mother would cook and serve
and stay thin while we
fought each other with forks.
Plates were always licked clean
out of hunger. Three of us
- Mary, John, and Matthew
- starved to death. The rest of us
ate their share. Because of this
there's always a gnawing
in my heart which hears my
stomach complain it's empty.
It isn't. It just worries that there
won't be seconds. There never
were then. Mother wouldn't
let us chew our sibling's bones.
Remember the children
in Africa, she'd say. We aren't
cannibals. We're Christians.
Still, we wanted to. Hunger does
that to a person if it's sharp enough.
Today in restaurants I steal
food from other people's plates
when they get up to go to
the restroom. They never notice.
They were only children.
That's why they're so svelte.
They don't get that fat
is for survival.

–

After a newspaper career, Eric Chiles began teaching writing and journalism at colleges in eastern Pennsylvania. He is the author of the chapbook "Caught in Between," and his poetry has appeared in Allegro, Blue Collar Review, Chiron Review, Main Street Rag, Plainsongs, Rattle, and elsewhere.

Star Gaze by Ruby Mohan

Wearing your mistakes
As the hurricane dresses
Or a tornado
Dark circles under blue eyes are smoky.
The lipstick is a tad too red.

Dress swirls gauzy
Whipping about curves
Fastening to nubs
Revealing far too much
Of the goddess at war

I imagine you striding to your closet.

Rummaging through clothes
Tossing them on an unmade bed and carpeted floor
Till you smile with smug satisfaction
At last, the dress to kill with.
When inhibitions won’t.

I can read it in your eyes.
You know how irresistible you look.
Stilettos stab the white marble with a purpose
In the empyrean where your gaze flies
Unbuttoned guitars fire phoenix skies.

Light colors should not be worn in the evenings.
You break every fashion rule made.
Edging in between the lines, you’re iconic scorn.

To love this wild,
How can he survive?
Where will you strike first?
Oh, my eyes! My burning eyes stargaze.

—

Ruby Mohan is an American writer, humorist and poet of Asian Indian ancestry. Her cosmopolitan literary works are informed by transcendentalism, science, logic, and ethics. Her award-winning poems, admired for their feminism, are published in literary journals worldwide. She straddles two continents with homes in Chandigarh (India) & Texas (USA). Twitter: @RubyMohans | Instagram: rubymohans | Facebook: Author Ruby Mohan

“Can We Be Evil?” By Ace Boggess

                question asked by Grace Welch

What leads us 

to ugliness,

a term I prefer 

to the one

you chose? 

I robbed &

wounded; you 

loosed havoc 

against friends & 

lovers. Neither 

of us wanted

to be monstrous.

It takes awareness

to wage war 

in heaven, &

we had none, 

broken beings

swinging 

our glistening,

bloody swords 

at the sun.

—

Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, most recently Escape Envy. His writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes and tries to stay out of trouble. His seventh collection, Tell Us How to Live, is forthcoming in 2024 from Fernwood Press.