Angel Dust by Stacy Black

Four Poems by Mark Young

Observations

 

#1

 

There is half a moon in the sky this afternoon as I take the washing off the line. I think it has something to do with the rampant inflation that coats the current world, how once you could afford a full moon, now the same amount of money only buys you half.

 

 

#2

 

I am reminded of that Magritte painting, Le Seize Septembre, as the moon makes its way upwards behind the large tree that stands between us. In the Magritte, it is a new moon rising in front of the tree; here the moon is almost full, & the tree has regained its normal place in front of it.

 

 

#3

 

There is a total eclipse about to begin. I am sitting on a chair on the back deck. Between me & the moon is not only that tree but, in the time it's taken for the moon to clear the topmost branches, around 3000 fruit bats have passed by, off on their nocturnal foraging.

 

 

#4

 

Dead birds punctuate the highway. The moon is nowhere to be seen.

 

 

geographies: Raptor Alley

 

A new Prodigy reverb is available

now. Proceed with caution, even

 

though the graffiti is attractive on

this one, as is the front & back em-

 

broidery with its delightful red

contrast stitching. Anthropologists

 

& historians clash over the diet &

friendship goals that need to be em-

 

bedded; but both share concerns at

the paucity of its graphics memory.

 

 

The threaded approach

 

Bottled anatomical specimens do not

share address spaces with hackable

notification daemons accused of

fondling & propositioning male

undercover police officers. Rather

 

they are classified under dental &

veterinary apparatus & instruments,

& designed for lightweight MS Windows

managers to help detect dreadlocks if

their arousal is slower than it used to be.

 

 

Letraset

 

aircraft

budget

carrier

deficit

 

electrical

french

grid

horn

 

instant

john

karma

lennon

 

mouth

no

organ

parking

 

quality

race

survey

track

 

under

violent

water

xenophobe

 

yodeling

zygote

Demolition of a Black Hole in a Red Eye by Logan Roberts

The demolition of doubt confiscates everything inside. I am mush

inside mush. A constellation of black holes. The bus races towards a dead end.

A child sits alone in the back under the flickering light. It’s all so melodramatic.

Automatic. The demolition of a constellation. I am a race towards the dead,

alone under a black hole. A child doubts everything inside. A black hole

confiscates, flickering alone. The doubt automatic. Everything so alone.

Dead mush inside holes of melodramatic light. The demolition of a constellation,

the light sits alone. Everything inside is doubt. Everything inside is black.

Everything inside is constellation. Everything inside is demolition.

The child races a black hole. Everything inside the child sits in demolition.

A black hole is a child, a constellation is a demolition of doubt. Mush is

so melodramatic. Everything is doubt. A black hole is dead. A child is dead.

A child confiscates the dead. The flickering light confiscates the child. A

Doubt confiscates everything & everything is racing towards death. Under the

child is the back of everything dead. In the end, everything inside is the 

demolition of doubt confiscating everything inside. The demolition of doubt

confiscates everything inside. I am mush inside mush.

A constellation of black holes. The bus races towards a dead end.

A child sits alone in the back under the flickering light. It’s all so melodramatic.

Automatic. The demolition of a constellation. I am a race towards the dead,

alone under a black hole. A child doubts everything inside. A black hole

confiscates, flickering alone. The doubt automatic. Everything so alone.

Dead mush inside holes of melodramatic light. The demolition of a constellation,

the light sits alone. Everything inside is doubt. Everything inside is black.

Everything inside is constellation. Everything inside is demolition.

The child races a black hole. Everything inside the child sits in demolition.

A black hole is a child, a constellation is a demolition of doubt. Mush is

so melodramatic. Everything is doubt. A black hole is dead. A child is dead.

A child confiscates the dead. The flickering light confiscates the child. A

Doubt confiscates everything & everything is racing towards death. Under the

child is the back of everything dead. In the end, everything inside is the 

demolition of doubt confiscating everything inside. 

 

Logan Roberts 

Five Poems by Damon Hubbs

Beauty Colony

argo in red shirt sails / pants, cargo / there is 

a before & an after / in two 

five day 

     bURSTS 

called the white witch

& with a new life contr[act] the badge 

with demeaning nickname is removed 

     Mom’s for Liberty

                                 Daughter’s of the Revolution

the “work,”  an indoctrination 

each trainee 

dresses a fantasy version 

     of themselves & 

carries the room in death / 

rebirth exhibit

in wilderness

the point of the spear

is 

     the sp[ear]

             

recruiting an audience.

Crooked Silo

unknowingly the mole admires stalactite cathedrals

dimples, freckles 

         of field, 

buckle and folds of the basal layer 

loops / whorls / arches 

     the landscape bodymapped 

in Muller glia

the monolithic stare of cows / melanoblasts

underland 

there are platforms 

     & pyramids 

linked by complex 

causeways

cavefish have lost sight of their eyes 

a rotunda of stone 

     cut / out of a buried river 

& filled 

black dune grains sheltering in vein time 

force sensor / discharge valve / flow patterns 

     of katabasis

 

winched into the abyss

     we climb the crooked silo, feeding the rat. 

Norway

The submarine is five meters underwater. 

The water has been here since the day 

trolls mixed ochre with cod liver 

to paint their caves red  

a poor substitute for the sun

or a Danish designed PH5 pendant lamp. 

The submarine is now a restaurant 

and a 1.5 hr scenic drive from Kristiansand

when guests arrive in scuba gear

waiters & sommeliers / cooks & interns

say hello with great warmth & hospitality

no one mentions the masks & snorkels, the BCDs

the 18-course immersion menu features pure, naked flavors. 

state of the art

the day is generative, metallic blue and fed with seasonal congratulations. after. the. tight. and. docile journey. in which a network of databases containing centuries of landscape and portraits are rendered into the wet black surface of their eyes, the Guernsey Jersey Brown Swiss and Red and White grand champions of the greater tri-state region arrive at the livestock pavilion and are herded into the Grange Hall of the State Fair. The official 4-H beef enrollment forms are signed, weigh-in information is recorded and bedding fees paid. Competitive livestock are drug tested in accordance with the Livestock Premium Book, Section 3. 

all entries are submitted on disposable plates: muffins, cookies, one and two crust pies, quick breads, yeast breads, breakfast rolls, hula hoop-wide whoopie pies, meringue swans on pink-fondant plinths with matching fondant flowers, industrial-sized butter sculptures of hands, mouths and ears, cream-swollen confections tipped with trompe-l’oeil cherries —implying a complete universe, the hermetic sensibility and formal clarity of baked goods extends beyond their material bounds. 

later, in the Fine Arts Competition, a picture made by an algorithm wins a blue ribbon. First prize $300. Every ingredient must be listed in exact measurements and the type of in[gre]di[e]nt must be specifie[d]

next slide, please.

lazy river

the lazy river 

loves to laugh 

at how lazy 

we are,

traveling without seeing 

only half-

submerged

we pile in 

& out 

change bathing suits 

rent rafts & rubber rings 

tuck into hotels 

new weather 

just like the old,

thinking all the while 

that we are peeling an orange 

in a single fluid gesture.

 

 

Damon Hubbs

Three Poems by petro c.k.

Overtongue Window

Growing indices 

and the rain embers 

on variety were frescos 

adequately localized 

Ages of predatory answers

emerges truth that birth 

of selective hunches 

are the naphtha

in the water to and out

of the psychotropics 

Their aquatics are grand 

schemes for bramble days 

their wetland habitats 

notes from leaving eyes

Sinistrorse Furniture 

     skin splits 

child of a distant god 

molts repeatedly

       the vulnerable adults 

       molt the other form 

concerned about how much yonder is the dependencies of their body habitats

       including the first 

       prehistoric inch of water 

always ahead of the horizon 

superseded in their finest fusion 

       epistemologically

this pen will whiteout ancient problems 

nothing but the other color of 

       this bog has survived 

       the first metonymy 

Jaggery Urged Beasts to Be 

Voices in the darkness 

          binding 

          new neighbors 

their faces 

without hardship 

 

It's clear to them that 

they will still accept 

           the birds not seen 

when moments of rain 

                        flood in 

A breed restless 

between getting served daily 

and a land lot ceded to them

            Hegemony referred to their tasks 

            hues of garish horror 

                                         like muddy 

            bodies 

out of breath 

a few days later

 

 

petro c.k.

Five Poems by Joshua Martin

Under the Objections

 

Desperation black star folded antiquity

promising table tennis another cup of tea

with teeth to chatter walloping savoir-faire

until cold headed cabbage poles become bronzed.

 

                  The caves rattle rocking gently clock winding

                  as a cat institutional fever dream pillbox.

 

Walls pour concrete

diaphragms to dilemmas   

among diatribes distant

& hauling reflexive trombones.

 

                                 Early eel arsonist

                                 membrane remembrance.

                         Special puppy pony tail    

                         riding shotgun special.

                                              Boil a rabbit flute clue

                                              crony circles wineglass.

 

They made cheese dance fandango distortions

naming conventional wisdom rollercoasters

brandished around neck noose tattoo mothership

without coup to eviscerate memorial jug bands.

 

 

Instantly backpedaling monster

Build to climatic ineptitude

& then pounce

                        tigers whisper

                        sweet illusions

            while markets crumble

 

Phantom tollbooths

carry buffets home

prairie oyster foam

penetrates jackfruit

 

                        Are nights

                        longer than

                        gun barrels

                        or do we

                        just fear

                        our sphincters?

 

A text

a mess

persistence implies

an answer to a

quandary

            whereas

automation only

benefits the wealthy

                       

            A well of rock fluids

            skin boarding

                        short fused

                        turned out

                        to be a

                        pickle in

                                    stead

                        of         a

            pine cone

barbaric empire of marine fossils

 

ecstatic beaver fever of ironic plate glass

shrunken before the beehive icicle

once shuttered like yo-yo in a pinecone

 

     release hazy diametric summers

     closer to a concept of cooling stalactites

     pinching bridge of nose in turn a rose

 

mishmashes seedling partaking frost

seldomly a mule before a simplified hot spring

salted and deposited without use of kidney

 

                                  wild as a hum

                                  sprained insect

                                  leaking lava

 

from where scurried borders loosen

employing postmortem wheatgerm

raised higher than celestial sandstone dictionaries   

Crop circles

 

Devoted hydrosphere

          a carrot w/o a flute ---

                carbonated discipline

                of described soil samples.

 

Breath of landform

, patterns screaming flora impediments

,, interacting throughout combined parrots

,,, on cue and meteorologically theoretical.

fabled figures in a parade

 

skirts of grape dilemma horns

referenced Babylonian starched collars

 

          there are sullen hymnals

          tied to a backside sweating

 

                    inches grow femurs

                    bugs groan salads

                    welts form spindles

 

my spiderweb for a munching hammer     

strumming beautician and the beasts

baseball helmet shaped like a blade

 

     box cutter orange

     spraying empires

     juggling hot tubs

     avoiding axioms

     proving database

 

                           ‘former KGB picnic

                            operating out of a

                            schoolyard hat rack

                            never meant glands’

 

                overcoming canyon stink

                as a punishment for rice

 

       vice versa Americana

       offended by ox tail widows

 

the window squeezes debris

meetings held up to glass house

wherever ceilings uncover gripping

 

                                      mania

                                      mania

                                      dogs

                                      ignoring

                                      cats

                                      ignoring

                                      dental

                                      hygiene

 

            ‘are you screaming

             so as to yield the

             signpost to another’s

             drooping jowls?’

 

newt without an inbox

cuter than a mantelpiece

caged near delta dominations

                          

                                         lizard puzzles over

                                         circumstances awkward

 

              fabulous cathedral juked 

 

‘varied stains taken

as scripture argyle’

 

                        at least our lungs

                        are dirty & straining

 

 

Joshua Martin