It a lie by Wayne F Burke

It a lie
a lie
I will never
die
I will never
be in need
never cry
at night
not me
not me
I am
different
breed of
liar.

Wayne F. Burke has published six full-length collections of poetry, most recently DIFLUCAN (2019, BareBack Press). He lives in Vermont.

THE HOLLOW by R.M. Engelhardt

Down in the
Hollow full of
Hollow men

No soul left

An artifact from
Another time

We sip whiskey
And remember
Better times

And count
Dead friends

Poet, Writer, Author & even a Minister over the last 25 years R.M. Engelhardt has been published in such magazines as Thunder Sandwich, Rusty Truck, Writers' Resist, Dry Land Lit, Hobo Camp Review & many others.

 He currently lives and writes in Upstate NY where he runs the Troy Poetry Mission. A last stop open mic for poets who like to share their work before going to San Francisco or hell.

www.rmengelhardt.com 

My Opening Appearance after Chase Twitchell by Michael Dwayne Smith

I read this poem for an exhibit opening in a local gallery.

Nobody knew what I was talking about, but they smiled kindly

and clapped when I signaled the end of the poem by smiling.

A young woman wearing a red shawl over her black hair

introduced herself after I’d finished reading and asked,

Would I read at the opening of her solo show? I said I would

if I could figure out what I was talking about. She said

I was about to find out. Outside, a bunch of skateboard punks

broke bottles, threw punches, and cheered in the parking lot.

A drunk photographer bought me a beer and explained in detail

her true passion was constructing miniatures, exact scale replicas

of abandoned places— gas stations and diners up and down

Route 66. It struck me that I didn’t remember anyone’s name,

that I couldn’t name what my poem was supposed to be about.

This leather-jacketed, faux beatnik snapped his fingers and said

I had the rhythms right. He knows, he was there… Kerouac’s

spectacular vernacular, Ginsberg’s interlacing ecstasies.

How would I know what I should know about whatever it is

I’m talking about, I asked, but the gallery was empty and

the lights were out. Everyone had gone home to finish drinking.

I was standing in a dark space, hearing echoes, and had only

poems where the answers to my questions might have been.

Michael Dwayne Smith lives near a Mojave Desert ghost town with his family and rescued animals. His most recent book isRoadside Epiphanies (Cholla Needles Press, 2017). Nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, his work haunts many literary houses--including The Cortland Review, New World Writing, Star 82 Review, Blue Fifth Review, Skidrow Penthouse, Word Riot, Rat's Ass Review, Gravel, San Pedro River Review--and has been widely anthologized. When not writing or teaching, he edits Mojave River Press & Review.

the people in the grocery store look like death warmed over. by John Gochalski

spoiled vegetables

and rancid meat

are what we get for a long day of servitude

long lines

and bored cashiers

playing on cell-phones

self-check machines

for the post-industrial world dandy

flat soda

and stale bread

warm beer by the caseload

that we’ll drink to insanity and bliss

the people in the grocery store

look like death warmed over

coming home from work

to their common miseries

and their self-inflicted wounds

microwaved leftovers

and the dread faces of loved ones

rank capitalists bound and gagged

i hate them

as i hate myself

for making each other

suffer this way.

John Gochalski is a writer whose poetry has appeared in several online and print publications including:  Red Fez, Rusty Truck, Outsider Writers Collective, Underground Voices, The Lilliput Review, The Main Street Rag, Zygote In My Coffee, The Camel Saloon, and Bartleby Snopes.  He is also the author four books of poetry The Noose Doesn’t Get Any Looser After You Punch (Six Gallery Press, 2008), Glass City (Low Ghost Press, 2010), Starting with the Last Name Grochalski (Coleridge Street Press, 2014), and The Philosopher’s Ship (Alien Buddha Press, 2018).  I am also the author of the novels, The Librarian (Six Gallery Press, 2013) and Wine Clerk (Six Gallery Press, 2016)