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L'art pour l'art!

I Settle for Graveyard Orbit

Season after season I live
until oxygen
decay my weary skull and
fimbulvinter makes men uneasy.

Finally the coronial
line breaks.
Magneto sheaths
implode on flesh of
men and gods alike.

What caused this fate?
A fatal break of honor.
I suffer under alligator blows while
avenging death with death and
emptying my cup.

Geomagnetic storms blow
the feedhorn,
deities rule the
snowy darkness.
No more stars while
naked skin goes at
highest bidding.

Dead men riding,
she jokes
at the half empty hangar.
A blue carcass inside a red body;
I eat you while time exist.

Delay.
Solar winds pass between
long lines of men before
the bow shock.
I feel no reconnection as my limbs bend and
Mjolnir forms intoxicated vectors in the night air.

 


PO Johnson is currently dividing his time between Norway and Sweden. He loves space mechanics, industrial rock and baroque. He is also a dedicated husband and a salsa dancer. https://pojohnson.blogspot.com/

laughter

black streams pouring from his shoes
a nesting lamppost lingers over the empty street
he stops at the fresco building by the blind alley

irritated streams between his lungs and abdomen
curls on the spindly sofa inside
among the corroded legs of the couches
a swarm
of lingering smoke and laughter
“…sperm is the only thing which can take you over the grave, you know”
he stops

frost descending on tar rooftops
at lung black streets
a lighthouse flutters oxygen over yonder

©  2012

Ande Enochsson lives in Sweden and has been published in several magazines.

Nightswimmer’s Creation Story

When he was a little kid, at the beach with family,

he watched a man swim out from shore

over criss-crossing whitecaps as a storm

pushed in. The man swam out of sight,

stayed in the water seemingly forever,

finally reappeared, pulled himself ashore, smiling.

How not to be afraid: dive in, fight through

while others stick to the sand, or worse—

stay home until idyllic conditions prevail.

From Nightswimmer’s exploratory efforts

starting early middle age, ‘til the Coast Guard

rescue on live camera, when the ActionNews haircut

labeled him a fool for taking on more distance

than he could manage—he’d emerged

from each struggle in a deeply peaceful state.

Always calm and bone tired and glad to be alive.

When he was a boy, he saw the way.

Todd Mercer (b. 1969) was nominated for Best of the Net in 2018. Mercer won 1st, 2nd & 3rd place of the Kent County Dyer-Ives Poetry Prizes and the won Grand Rapids Festival Flash Fiction Prize. His chapbook Life-wish Maintenance is posted at Right Hand Pointing. Recent work appears in: A New Ulster, The Lake, Mojave River Review and  Praxis. Mercer and his wife Michaeleen Kelly adopted an awesome rescue dog (Garpur-Bradley) who only talks when it is important.

all together now

all together now

walking with a dog you are
never alone
and your eyes are always down
ticks, turds, and dangerous bones
you watch the neck and the ground
between the small stones
moves an ant, and
i adjust 40 pounds of
huge, damaged leg
to avoid
who commits more horse power?
an ant's (entire) life
(toil)
or a big animal's
avoid maneuver ;
either way
he is more efficient
i
am more accurate
we both live

2019

In The Garden

Adam

Play it safe Eve,

Follow the rules.

Eve, where are you going?

Lilith

Eve, he was always like that,

likes to be in charge,

forgets how much you do,

forgets you have needs, too.

Life is more than this garden, Eve.

Have you ever looked outside the gate,

have you ever wondered what is out there?

Eve, have you noticed the serpent?

Eve

Serpent?

Lilith  

Just here— I'll rest her in this tree branch

notice how she moves

her body hugs the tree.

Watch her move along the trunk

have you ever been touched like that Eve?

Eve... are you hungry?

elaine reardon

together outliar

outlier
i live alone    but it's all in my head
i'm very ill     but it's all in my head
i'm a nice guy, but that's very much all in my head
my family supports me, but
it's all in my head
not like a dream,
in dreams i am a kind of hero
(details to follow
and i die over and over again
those things are treasures beyond value, every
last breath i wake as someone else,
we all do
it's all in our heads
you're all in my head
when i go it'll be sad to kill you all that way
but it's just for me
i live alone



2019