LOVES LOST
by Shannon Fox

1) Dante never wrote a hell so perfect as mine.

2) When he called, I was sitting on the floor in my underwear, picking
hair off my rug. I like to think he was doing the same.

 

 

haiKKu
by Ken Knowlton

Ungrounded I pause
in glass and steel foam mourning
the family farm.

 

 

DEMOLITION DERBY
by Ronald E. Holtman

Maria sat with us in the fairgrounds bleachers watching young men crash the old cars,
driving backwards in circles, then breaking their yardsticks
to declare a radiator impaled or some universal joint twisted and put to ground.
She had asked to see our culture and we thought of sitting among wife beater shirts and tattoos.
We disguised our beers in paper sacks while our past crunched by in reverse gear.
You Americans, she laughed. These would make taxis in my country.

 

 

INSTRUCTIONS
by Andrew Borgstrom

 The words should be ripe to the touch. If the entire circumference is massaged, you should be able to remove the top with your teeth and quietly squeeze the contents into your mouth. If you have a word-mustache, you win.

 

 

OPTIONS
by Rob Hicks

Do I love to write?
No more than I love
An early morning
A naked girl
An 8-hour work day
Or 4 9-hour work days
And a half day off.
It just makes me
want to stay in bed
a little less.

 

 

RYE
by Rob Hicks

It burns going down
It burns coming up

The best part is that
in between the coming
and the going,
the burning stops

for a little while.

 

 

Shannon Fox is a fiction writer from San Diego, CA. When not writing or hiding from
the sun, she spends time with her horse. She’s currently a book-blogger at http://isleofbooks.wordpress.com .

Ken Knowlton has an MIT PhD in Information Science, spent 40 years in computer R&D, created the first computer system for bitmap movies and holds 30 US patents. In retirement, he writes poetry and makes mosaics.

Ronald E. Holtman practices law in a small mid-Ohio college town.  This is his first published poem.

Andrew Borgstrom lives in the desert.

Rob Hicks is a recent college graduate who resides in Austin, Texas. Most of his writing is done at the coffee shop down the street or in his maroon recliner by his bedside.