The Thing About Sex by Dale Champlin

-after “Writing” by Charles Bukowski Wait until waiting hurts, wait some more,wait until it hurts like hell, until your ears ring and you can’t think,until you go blind in both eyes,until you want what you want more than anything.until you can’t think of anything elsebecause, yes, it is everything.All you can picture is his hand on your rumphis fingers in your mouth,his lip on your tongue,his face … Continue reading The Thing About Sex by Dale Champlin

Taxidermy by Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

When I die I want to be stuffed stuffed and mounted on the wall like some poor old deer who got caught in the headlights  Not just the antlers mind you but the whole fucking catastrophe― glass eyes    mop of hair scars stretching beyond Wyoming Gutted by the skin of my teeth  like dead animals and birds I want to be filled with that special fake something―that makes me look like I’m alive―the stuff that dreams are … Continue reading Taxidermy by Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

I Wear You Like a Chinchilla Coat by Dale Champlin

I carry you like a kangarootoss you like a paper cupsing you like a high note. Don’t get me wrong,I am the boomerang who will always come back to you,a recurring dream,the tune you whistlewhile you wash the dishes,the romanceyou can’t seem to shake. Even so,you shake me like a maracapluck me like a bouquet, fly me like a paper plane. The truth is,I was never yours … Continue reading I Wear You Like a Chinchilla Coat by Dale Champlin

Atlas, Bound by Victor Marrero

1 And here he too is caught. The mighty man, the Titan. A noble crushed, enslaved as well. But even emasculated he steals the show. His physique overburdenedbecomes a hunchback. Muscularity overwrought, grown weary by force, with age. He crouches. He arcs. His head half-formed recedes. Locked inside a hunk of uncut rock, he craves more space, as if gasping for air,as if being devoured by a mass of stone his … Continue reading Atlas, Bound by Victor Marrero

On Reaching Old Age by Colin Ian Jeffery

Time is fleeting in its passingAnd does jolt the memoryRecalling images of long agoWhen life seemed to stretch far awaySafe from Death’s stalking shadow. As a child I thought as a childSeeing only bright summer daysWith friendships I thought to last foreverAnd parents who could never dieOld age a distant foreign land. Now walking the land of the elderlyOld bones and old man troublesWondering how … Continue reading On Reaching Old Age by Colin Ian Jeffery

Queen Jane by Nik Ruckert

She pulled the hem of her short nightgown down as far as it would allow, fingered a Queen Jane cigarette out of the pack, and lit it right off the gas stove. As the cigarette hung out of her mouth, she lowered the flame under her oatmeal with one hand and ran the thumb of her other across the raised crown logo on the front of the crush-proof cigarette box before … Continue reading Queen Jane by Nik Ruckert