Jeff Weddle

I Loved Lucy

The grocery store
gave a dime apiece
for the pop bottles

I collected
by the side of the road,

righteous money,

but I kept one back
to hold the wild flowers.

The flowers,
a Snickers,
and a lame
knock-knock joke
went fine with the sunset.

Next day in school
you blushed
as we passed
in the hall.

James Croal Jackson

Thrift Store Sweater

Threads dangle off the sweater
I’ve worn forever, blue
and purple billows all across
my torso. I can’t just throw
away this salvaged dollar
from a Goodwill. A cloth
can sheath itself on the body
and glide forever, walking
toward an inevitable unknown
destination. The distance is empty
space, jammed with ubiquitous
sound. I will sew none of it.

James Croal Jackson is a Filipino-American poet who works in film production. His latest chapbooks are Count Seeds With Me (Ethel Zine & Micro-Press, 2022) and Our Past Leaves (Kelsay Books, 2021). Recent poems are in Stirring, Vilas Avenue, and *82 Review. He edits The Mantle Poetry from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (jamescroaljackson.com)

Juliet Cook

Stalks

This abyss of dark corn fields
floods your brain and
nervous system with
violent effigies, waiting to abduct you.

Immerse you in flames
then just throw you away.
Your un-model hands shake
inside this pit of toxic abrasion.

Turbulent then blurring.
Trapped in the never ending
descent. Your spinal column
degenerates into a rotting corn stalk.

Unwanted. From a pall to appalling.

Juliet Cook's poetry has appeared in a small multitude of print and online publications. She is the author of numerous poetry chapbooks, recently including "Another Set of Ripped-Out Bloody Pigtails" (The Poet's Haven, 2019), "The Rabbits with Red Eyes" (Ethel Zine & Micro-Press, 2020), "Histrionics Inside my Interior City" (part of Ghost City Press's Summer Micro-Chapbook Series, 2020), "red flames burning out" (Grey Book Press, April 2023) and "Contorted Doom Conveyor" (Gutter Snob Books, July 2023). Later this year, she has another new poetry chapbook manuscript, "Your Mouth is Moving Backwards", from Ethel Zine & Micro Press in October 2023. Cook's first full-length poetry book, “Horrific Confection", was published by BlazeVOX. Her most recent full-length poetry book, "Malformed Confetti" was published by Crisis Chronicles Press. You can find out more at www.JulietCook.weebly.com.

Max Heinegg

Wayfinder

In Reykjavik

The mother of the goldsmith shows me the rune
beside the protective eye of awe
near the lava stone & silver necklaces
adorned by the carved teeth of whales.

She says, Here is the wayfinder
& puts it on so I may imagine
how it will look on you.

Along the walls, she has modeled
her son’s creations. In black & white,
a grandmother, still beautiful.

I hope this is where we will follow,
the way an older culture set
the symbol to stay in one place,
offering
something of the earth
that skill shaped, clasped
with a magnet to hold the rope, so
you will know where you are going
even when you don’t.

Max Heinegg is a poet, singer-songwriter, recording artist, editor, and literary critic. His previous collection, Good Harbor, won the inaugural Paul Nemser Prize from Lily Poetry Press. His second book of poems, Going Therre, came out in September 2023. Born in Cooperstown, NY, he lived in Schenectady, NY before moving to Medford, MA, where he has taught English in the Medford Public Schools for 25 years and is the co- founder and brewmaster of Medford Brewing Company. Connect with him on the web at www.maxheinegg.com

Al Ortolani

Stopped at the Gate

It is easy to forget we are fragile
without skullcaps, without sweaters,
without television to tell the stories
          that warm us.

In the snow I pee a sketch
like a boy. It is a refugee’s boat, medieval,
with a shallow prow, and beside
          the single mast

the dribble of all that can be saved
in a shipwreck. All that freezes
in deep cold. All that melts
          when it thaws.

There’s a rumor that Jesus
could walk on water, right through
these walls, your iron gate
          a mirage of fish.

Al Ortolani’s poetry has appeared in journals such as Rattle, New York Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, One Art Poetry Journal, Main Street Rag, Chiron Review, and many others. His most recent poetry collection is The Taco Boat, published by New York Quarterly Books in 2022. His first novel Bull in the Ring will soon be released by Meadowlark Books in Emporia, Kansas. He currently lives in the Kansas City area with his wife and brilliant dog, Stanley.

Tarnished, poem by Jon Bennett

 Tarnished 

 

You can replace things 

an alternator, a starter 

but the real skill is in diagnosis 

you have to keep learning 

have a passion for it 

I’m passionate about passion 

but don’t have much left 

I drink tea, play the guitar 

the chord progressions are different 

but somehow all the same 

the finger picking patterns 

never progressed 

At work it’s the same thing 

I know what I learned 

in the first two years 

but then seized up 

I’m rebar in concrete 

old silver fillings 

rigid, rusting 

and hampered  

by a fear of pain 

these scribbles of a staid teetotaler reflect 

“Today I brushed my teeth 

and lost a crown,” I write 

but there are many things 

in my mouth 

that will never come out. 

Jon Bennett writes and plays music in San Francisco. You can find more of his work here and here.  A collection of his poetry is available through Amazon at Leisure Town.

Back on the Job!

 It's been some time, and since we have a surplus of material on-hand, we will publish poems every Monday and Friday from now on. Please accept my apologies for the length of time it's taken us (me) to get things back in order.

Rusty