THE SLOW COLD REEK OF SUSPICION by Jay Passer

I can’t think while the mice are listening

my only companions although they disgust me

waiting for me to leave by the door or by dying

in either case, revolution is on their tiny minds

savvy their infinitesimal Hitchcockian urges

gathering en masse behind undulating walls

in noxious league with other species of vermin

I can’t even tiptoe around the room, thanks to

broken shards of psychic warfare littered about

I put on my Kafka mask, shut tight all the windows

as an insidious karma corrodes the cancer within

I can’t abandon the proscenium for fear 

of demolishing the fourth wall for good

Jay Passer's work has appeared in print and online since 1988. He is the author of several chapbooks and has appeared in a bunch of anthologies. His latest collection, they lied to me when they said everything would be alright, from Pski's Porch, is available at Amazon. Passer lives and works in San Francisco, the city of his birth.

86’ed. By Dan Provost

Barred from Wonderland

with an idea of poetic license

stuck to my calamity.

Billowing hopelessness stalks the

ground with the horizontal

homeless.

Before I go, I’ll take three of what she’s

having and call it a life.

Be patient, as I count the

pennies to pay the tab.

You’ve got nowhere to

go Captain America…

Being 86’ed forever is a

title I’d welcome

           warmly…

I can sit on the curb

all day now

and portray my pitiful

mistake.

As passer byes lean against my

new home.

Trying to lift gum off

their shoe.

Dan Provost's poetry has been published throughout the small press for a number of years.  Some recent publications include: Ariel Chart, Poetical Review, Merak Magazine, Oddball Magazine, Deuce Coupe, Misfit Magazine, the Rye Whiskey Review, Cajun Mutt Press and the Dope Fiend Daily.  He has two books coming out in 2020.  Under the Influence of Nothingness by Kung Fu Treachery Press and Rattle of a Realizer, published by Whiskey City Press.  He lives in Berlin, New Hampshire with his wife Laura and dog Bella.

Saplings by Susan Tepper

Watch a sudden flash 

fire absorb the ground

weeds bunched 

like yarn

you worked into 

a fragrant sweater

carry flames

rushing to finish

for him

Everything tall is bending

The strain—

The saplings before 

their time to silver 

Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Her two most recent titles are CONFESS (poetry from Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and a road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019) that was shortlisted at American Book Fest. Other honors and awards include eighteen Pushcart Prize Nominations, a Pulitzer Nomination by Cervena Barva Press for the novel ‘What May Have Been’ (re-written for adaptation as a stage play to open in NY next year), shortlisted in Zoetrope Contest for the Novel (2003), NPR’s Selected Shorts for ‘Deer’ published in American Letters & Commentary (ed. Anna Rabinowitz), Second Place Winner in StorySouth Million Writers Award, Best of 17 Years of Vestal Review and more. Tepper is a native New Yorker. www.susantepper.com

From the Fountain by Susan Tepper

Do you walk 

to make light

through your arms

tree limbs 

hanging.

In Paris 

when the rain stopped  

the buildings

breathed out heat.

A young man

emerged

greasy hair swept back

a sheen to his 

unwashed face and

cheap rumpled suit.

I pictured him 

entwined with a stranger 

all the night before.

Industrious 

he emptied a knapsack

filling empty 

water bottles to sell

to tourists later

from the fountain.

Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Her two most recent titles are CONFESS (poetry from Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and a road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019) that was shortlisted at American Book Fest. Other honors and awards include eighteen Pushcart Prize Nominations, a Pulitzer Nomination by Cervena Barva Press for the novel ‘What May Have Been’ (re-written for adaptation as a stage play to open in NY next year), shortlisted in Zoetrope Contest for the Novel (2003), NPR’s Selected Shorts for ‘Deer’ published in American Letters & Commentary (ed. Anna Rabinowitz), Second Place Winner in StorySouth Million Writers Award, Best of 17 Years of Vestal Review and more. Tepper is a native New Yorker. www.susantepper.com

Knee-Deep in Mud, No Gold Yet by John Doyle

Some dolt called Agnew 
whose first name's not Spiro

leaves me standing rain-soaked in a hotel foyer, 

taxi motor still ticks outside -

she tells me sorry 14 times,

when a chef shouts at her 

from the kitchen to bring out 15 souffles,

her bestie and soul-mate Sarah giving me the evil eye

with her cool-cat friends 

waiting behind my taxi in dune-buggy 

like its 1968,

ready to recreate photos of people standing by a wall

doing various alternating poses, 

some wearing beany-hats,

others in stripey psychedelic drainpipe pants 

and Dick Dastardly hats. 

Everyone likes to jump when the camera clicks - 

makes them look kooky, you see.

Her bestie's boyfriend's called David, 

or Carl, or something - he's sensitive, apparently.

Agnew knocks things over, quite a lot, I notice, 

and six months later 

she still calls me 'Rob'.

Rob, she says, can we do this some other time?

I say sure, but I've forgotten your name, 

is it Spiro? I know your pop's name is Nelson.

I turn around, she's gone - in a puff of smoke, 

the bang of a dune buggy back-fires

outside, my cab driver drops his Evening Herald, looks around. 

It's times like these I wish I smoked, though it couldn't be Marlboro, 

I'm not enough of a cowboy just yet

to lasso cowgirls like these.

Turns out three years later she comes out. After dark, I tell myself -

to feast on the souls of fallen angels. 

Bloodshot O'Hara sitting beside me agrees,

pours me a long-cool glass of milk,

we run Planet Waves and Oh Mercy through the jukebox, 

until we start to weigh them down

and they stop by a water through, smoke coming from their saddles.

John Doyle became a Mod again in the summer of 2017 to fight off his impending mid-life crisis; whether this has been a success remains to be seen. He has has two collections published to date, A Stirring at Dusk in 2017, and Songs for Boys Called Wendell Gomez in 2018, both on PSKI's Porch. 

He is based in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. All he asks is that you leave your guns at the door and tie up your horses before your enter.

remembrance. By Jck Hnry

the sky lingers

fat across my mind,

blood stained and wet

with tears from a

mourning of souls.

it is another day

of remembrance

when everything remains

forgotten.

so-called patriots

thump their chests

w/ broken fists,

chant about civil

rights and masks.

it is a courtesy and

respect for others,

but they don’t care,

they don’t listen,

they don’t believe in

anyone’s gold but their

own.

and i laugh as they

cough through tubes

of plastic attached

to machines that keep

them alive.

there are no sides

to take when it

comes to dying.

jck hnry is a writer/publisher/editor, based in southeastern california.  recent publications include:  Deuce Coupe, Rye Whiskey Review, Razur Cuts, Cajun Mutt, Dissident Voices, Horror Sleaze Trash, Bold Monkey, Red Fez, dope fiend daily and a bunch of other noble zines and journals.  Books include:  “With the Patience of Monuments (neoPoesis) ,” “Crunked, (Epic Rites)” and the upcoming "Driving w/Crazy (Punk Hostage Press, 2020).”  hnry is also editor and publisher of Heroin Love Songs and 1870. for more go to jackhenry.wordpress.com. 

Pulped by Susan Tepper

All theories of madness pulped

‘til pits floated in the liquid

undrinkable—

the off-color of piss. No formulation 

we could figure out 

as the thing darkened by the minute

we sank further in the muck—

around us a stink.

Rot and decay like cheese

not cured to mold. 

Father, I prayed,

in my rusty way, 

what beast has set upon the earth?

Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Her two most recent titles are CONFESS (poetry from Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and a road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019) that was shortlisted at American Book Fest. Other honors and awards include eighteen Pushcart Prize Nominations, a Pulitzer Nomination by Cervena Barva Press for the novel ‘What May Have Been’ (re-written for adaptation as a stage play to open in NY next year), shortlisted in Zoetrope Contest for the Novel (2003), NPR’s Selected Shorts for ‘Deer’ published in American Letters & Commentary (ed. Anna Rabinowitz), Second Place Winner in StorySouth Million Writers Award, Best of 17 Years of Vestal Review and more. Tepper is a native New Yorker. www.susantepper.com