Sparked by Lynn White

He looked down
at her.
Eyes deliberately
downcast.
lips not expecting
to be met.
So it was
a surprise
when she kissed him.
His eyebrows twitched
with the charge,
There was a spark.
The spark.
The spark
that lay in a devil’s kiss.
The spark
that would ignite the fire
which would consume him.

--

Lynn White lives in North Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including: Consequence Journal, Firewords, Capsule Stories, Gyroscope Review and So It Goes.

Spider in Green Plastic Beach Bucket Left in a Crawl Space Years Ago to Catch Water from a Leaky Pipe by Ace Boggess

Mime struggles to climb an invisible ladder,
slipping on a rung to fall back down.
What it can’t see blinds—a neon atrocity,
vertical too steep & smooth
for the most skilled mountaineer.

Eyelash arms reach & slide, reach & slide,
pulling it nowhere
like a mouse I saw once trapped in a fiberglass tub,
no path to freedom, its talents wasted,
as with the spider’s, stranding it

surrounded by bodies of predecessors.
I won’t harm it;
I won’t come close to offer release.
It’s on its own, a prisoner of war
in a camp long abandoned by its guards.

--
Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, most recently Escape Envy. His writing has appeared in Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Harvard 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.

Soft Tongue by Merritt Waldon

Sweet muse of this explosive heart
Call to you this morning
Out of the madness the river
Sings peculiar songs to this flesh
Hungry for one more kiss one more
Embrace

One more laugh during soft tongues
Mingling

In the background I hear your voice
“That isn’t home” & I smile knowing
That you will once again

Be where I am

--

Merritt Waldon b 1974. Madison, Indiana. Has been published in numerous publications nationally and internationally. He has 5 books of poetry. His first: Oracles From A Strange Fire by Merritt Waldon and Ron Whitehead. (Cajun Mutt Press, 2020). He lives in Austin, Indiana.

The Flannel Channel by Dan Raphael

I wear flannel, wool flannel
sometimes over a long-sleeved tie dye
I live in a mythical pocket of the northwest
everything but my shoes could be from 50 years ago
my car runs on gas, my house runs on dammed river

when I’m gone my house will be replaced by a 4-plex
the school across the street will be even more confused
the mile away freeway will have so many complaints
drivers will close their eyes and have their cars on autonomous
so they don’t have to see what they’re driving through

it won’t be an earthquake or rising tides that kill my town
but everyone moving here to escape heat, drought and AI land barons
Mt. Hood will still be visible, occasionally venting steam
as the seismic plates are already in motion
seismic plates of capitalism, of political and climate migration
of global war over resources and humanity’s unevolved need
for a pecking order, while Gaia’s immune system
intensifies with unprecedented weather, famine and viruses

someone else might be wearing my wool shirts
no one will be reading this

--

Dan Raphael’s last two books are In the Wordshed (Last Word Press, ’22) and Moving with Every (Flowstone Press, ’20.) More recent poems appear in Umbrella Factory, Concision, Brief Wilderness, Packingtown and Unlikely Stories. Most Wednesdays Dan writes and records a current events poem for The KBOO Evening News.

Sip ‘n Sin by John Patrick Robbins

Sometimes the knowledge of knowing one last binge can end it all brings a warmth to my heart.
For in my passing I will at last be free.

To be whispered upon the winds and embraced in a lone saltwater tear that gently embraces a dingy unswept floor.

The ice will slowly melt, the booze fiery embrace will be that parting kiss.

Departure is bittersweet to the beloved, never the strangers of forgotten sunsets and past ill-fated romances.
Don't regret the choice as I mask my truths with the last pour.

JPR is a Southern Gothic writer. His work has appeared here at Disturb The Universe, Fixator Press, Lothlorien Journal Of Poetry, The Dope Fiend Daily, Horror Sleaze Trash, The San Pedro River Review, Spillwords Press, and Svartedauden Zine.

His work is always dark and unfiltered.

A Mother Shunned by Paulette Hampton

She is electric like a midsummer’s storm
Blustery and loud, flashing her bright anger
Covering the earth in her gray shroud
And weeping the tears of a mother shunned.

--

Paulette Hampton holds a Masters in Reading Education. She has self-published two books and has had her poetry accepted by several online magazines.

Break by Richard LeDue

The fifth cup of coffee
is more to spite yourself
(for making it to 3 PM
without murdering anyone)
than for the caffeine
or other health benefits
proving the internet exists,
and the sugar packets
you abided by in your youth
flout wrinkles and grey hair now,
while unused creamers
make no parable of it all,
as darkness drains from your mug
down to wherever everything goes
you've had to swallow.

--

Richard LeDue (he/him) lives in Norway House, Manitoba, Canada. He has been published both online and in print. He is the author of ten books of poetry. His latest book, “Sometimes, It Isn't Much,” was released by Alien Buddha Press in February 2024.
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Richard%20LeDue/author/B09DX9YL4T