Joseph Farley

Listening To Trucks

Listening as trucks on Frankford Avenue 
rattle the walls of my home,
I wonder if all these little earthquakes 
that occur all day and night 
will weaken the structure I sleep in.
Will they sound a warning horn
before the walls come tumbling down?
Or will I wake one morning,
or not wake at all,
covered with crumbling bricks
and shattered timbers?

I don’t worry about it long.
I will never be able to afford to move.
This is my life.
Another risk I have taken.
I need not travel
to India to hunt tigers with a bow.
There is sufficient danger
right at home.

I will go on living 
as if each day might be my last,
trying to squeeze joy 
from every moment,
until all that is left is a rind.
That will get buried somewhere.
Does it really matter
if it is under mud and grass 
or masonry, wood, and roofing tiles?

Karl Koweski

mother’s lil bro

I can’t respect
a thirty-four
year old man
who calls his mother
“bro.”

repeatedly
over the speaker phone
I have to listen
to his vapid
narcissistic
meanderings.

every sentence
basted with
a sociopath’s
false sauce
of canned emotion.

every plea for money,
every whining excuse
for his every
existential debacle

ends with
“hear what I’m saying,
bro?”

his mother
is trapped between
exasperation
and adulation.

in his entire
“adult” life
he’s never held down
a job longer
than three months.

one of these days
he’s going to grow up
his mother
continually predicts.

it just hasn’t
happened yet.

until then,
she wires him
another hundred dollars
for rent.

two hundred dollars
to help him
make his child
support payments
toward four children
who will never
know the joy
of hearing their daddy
call them 
“bro.”

four hundred dollars
to bond him
out of jail
for something
he was totally
innocent of

it’s just bad luck
“bro.”

hear what I’m saying,
“bro.”

thirty-four-years old.

David Estringel

After the Wake

Yellow wallpaper  
peels 
behind faded pictures 
in dusty frames,  
falling to the floor  
in ashen drifts—ephemeral— 
of births and wakes, 
stabbing  
to the heart 
like first kisses 
or cold sips  
of Orange Crush 
but dulled 
from memory  
(and time) 
like giftless Christmases  
and old calico,  
drying on the line. 
What ghosts roam these halls, 
haunting bowls
of waxed fruit
and glass doorknobs,  
lingering ‘round chicken coops,  
dust bunnies, 
and jelly jar glasses 
like palls 
or the bitter of burnt almonds. 
As a pale pink echo 
of rose 
peeks through the air’s must,  
a voice whispers, “Remember this. Now,” 
leaving me to chuckle and smile. 

How silly it is to mourn life as we live it.

***

(originally published at The Gorko Gazette)

Michael D. Amitin

House of Fleeing Winds

I am the crippled saint rapping at the door 
of forgiveness, creaky oiless springs
a house of fleeing winds
thoughts darting across a sea of wanton olive skin night

I am the storm rattling iron door handles
stone churches dangling over faded waters, orphaned rains
dark seaport nights
young wives of the sailorhood praying for good to come 
no widow’s hand to touch
the merry band shoves out to Brittany wine darkness 

I am the star of storms
whipping brewed mists
and mandolin ash bone trysts
sunrise-blue groans 

I am the nail in my hop-along cassidy coffin
pining lust busted caverns
in a torrent of rain on dream street

born backwards my dice tumbling rocky roads
eternally awkward in the hall of cracked-eye perfection

zen-headed dottard riding a youth dew vapor throne 
in a dime dance parade 
oopa oopa cops with maiden-bated breath 
hangovers hanging on a thread of orderly 

In a nightmare I saw a
warrior of yore darning obedience stockings
Redyard Rudyard cries
‘An’ you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of ’im that’s got it’. 

St Vitus does the jerk over red hot coals
as the earth hums a dirge in the key of catastrophe
the kids chanting Runaway

I saw God
he looked me in the eye from a soft orange cloud 
whizzing over rumble town
I am the star of storms escorting you through 
red-light servitudes
scorned devil moons, brooding mama’s

lady peppermint fondling the jade egg of Napoleon’s daydream 
the messianic bus driver honking with his tin-horn hat
better climb aboard. or run for your life
fast

Daniel S. Irwin

My Troubled Brain

The doctors thought the solution
To my problems was just a matter
Of splitting my troubled brain.
But that only doubled my anxiety.
Now there’re two moody Jekylls.
One says white, the other black.
Angry words, endless arguments,
One hand gouging at my eyes,
While the other hand chokes me.
Enough!  I put a pistol to my head.
They wrestle over which half will
Get splattered across the room.
Escape is the only remedy and
I’m ready to board the plane but,
Damn it!  My ticket’s for the bus.

M.P. Powers

The Buddha in the Key Largo Swimming Pool

Ten potbellied air compressors 
sitting 
in the shallow end. 

They have come from the panhandle. 
They have come to release the pressure valve. 

They have come with Yeti coolers
brimming with Bud Light, 
bags of shrimp, other delights.

And on their radio: songs of pride.

These men are patriots. 

These men are men 
by almost anyone’s definition. 

But they are lesser 
versions
of their leader, the largest, the XL 
potbellied
air compressor. 

He sits in the center 
like Buddha 
in blue-lensed sunglasses, 
his massive arms propped on the ledge, 
his ten-gallon straw hat lolling 
as he proselytizes 
about somethingorother. 

I wade across the pool to find out what. 
I figure
it must be profound 
considering
all the reverence they’re giving him.

Then I hear it: “I sold that 
lot for two-and-a-half.” 

That’s all. 

But punctuated 
with a belch, and a thrust of his arm 
toward 
the Yeti cooler. 

“More,” he tells one 
of his
underlings.

And is served. 

Nova Warner

Reap What You Sow

A beat-up truck bounced down the dirt road towards an old but sturdy farmhouse. Next to the house a legion of maize crops stood to attention. It wouldn’t be long until they would be ready for harvesting. That job belonged to Jessie. She had spent most of her living moments these last few months cultivating the corn field, each step of growth accompanied by care and dedication from the amateur farmer. When she was given the farm in her fathers will she expected to just sell off the farm and move away to live the cliché life of a country girl in the big city. 

But instead, she found herself incapable of leaving the farm. After selling most of the fields to nearby farms, she decided to keep the small field right next to the farm and try growing some corn. And so, using notes left by her father and online guides, she spent everyday contributing to the growth of the corn. Whenever she thought of the hard work she had put into the field of maize she welled up with pride and love for farming. On the rare occasion that she wasn’t in the field or the house, she was in the nearby town of Wolbach dipping into her savings to get some food and a book or two, to keep her entertained on the long nights. She had been on one such trip today.

The aging truck pulled up by the side of the house and outstepped Jessie. She couldn’t have worn a more stereotypical farmers outfit if she tried. Denim overalls and a faded t-shirt had become her standard uniform over the last few months. Jessie wasn’t complaining though, she enjoyed how she looked in the outfit with its pleasant combination of practicality and rugged beauty. Every time she looked in the mirror, a small rush of euphoria ran through her body. Her transition had been going well before she started on the farm, but the last few months had helped her find an inner peace she didn’t expect to discover. Despite this she still found herself unsure of her appearance at times, she had grown overly paranoid over her appearance, that somehow she wasn’t being the woman she was meant to be. Whenever these thoughts came to her she did her best to shove them down but they still lingered in mocking echoes in her head.

Back inside the house, she stored away her groceries and prepared herself a quick meal in the silence of the old house. A sense of loneliness crept into her. She may enjoy the toil of farming, but it left her little time for social interaction. She didn’t even have the time or energy to date. Part of her yearned for the intimate touch of another, but she managed to ignore the desire and went back outside to look over her hard work. As the sun entered its final descent in the horizon Jessie sat on the rocking chair on the porch. It used to be her dads spot, overlooking the fields he toiled in all day. Most of her thoughts of the old man centred around that chair. It was here that he told her about her family history, and it was here that she came out to him. Thankfully, both were pleasant memories. 

She felt much older than 26 while she rocked back and forth like an ancient woman about to dispense some prophetic wisdom on a passing traveller. But instead of vaguely understandable nuggets of wisdom, all she had was a book of escapist fantasy. The book told tales of creatures from the wildest fringes of the imagination brought to life, and the ways they lived with humans. Some brought destruction and decay, while others created beauty and love. 

Within minutes she was engrossed in this false world of fantastical creatures. She was so focused that she didn’t immediately hear the voices. Floating along the air, the sound of chatter emanated from the field of corn. Eventually Jessie managed to pull her gaze away from the book and towards it. Initially dismissing the voices as just being a few dogwalkers from Wolbach on a particularly long walk, she tried to focus back on her book. But the voices not only continued but actually grew in volume, demanding her attention. She looked up again, but rather than an empty landscape Jessie noticed movement in the fields. Right in the centre of the corn a silhouetted figure roamed as if daring the young farmer to remove it. The head of the figure appeared mishappen and hard to differentiate from the corn that surrounded it. An attempt at sternly shouting for the stranger to leave fell on deaf ears.

After grabbing a baseball bat from inside the house, Jessie ventured into the corn field. In the sky the sun had been replaced by the moon, its light being much more meagre than that provided by the sun. Every part of her screamed for her to turn back around and just call the police, but her pride pushed her onwards. She’d worked so hard to grow this crop, she couldn’t let some inconsiderate stranger stamp all over it. Inside the field she still couldn’t see the intruder, but as she delved deeper into the rows of corn she felt whispers emanating from all around her, a chorus of dissonant voices. Slowly she approached the centre of the field, shadowed movements glimpsed between the tall reeds. Each glimpse watered a seed in her mind of the nature of the intruder. 

First she saw the legs, gangly yet swift. Then came a glimpse of thin and wide hands that brushed against the stalks. Hands attached to arms that threatened to embrace her and reach out across the short distance between the two field dwellers. And then there was the head, barely distinguishable among the ears of corn. It was narrower than heads should be, with regimented ridges barely perceptible under the shadows painted on the head. An image of the stranger pieced itself together in her mind, but the image didn’t make any sense to her. She could feel sweat collecting on her hands, loosening her grip on the baseball bat. Eventually she reached the centre of the field and halted, unsure of where to go next.

Corn stalks swayed in the wind. Crickets croaked their tunes into the night sky. All was peaceful. Except for the corn. Jessie couldn’t understand how, but she could feel, deep within her soul, that the corn felt different tonight. For a few minutes the whispers abated, but they still lurked in the distance of her hearing.

“Who’s out there?” she shouted, trying to hide the wobble in her voice.

And then slowly, nearly outside Jessies periphery, the entity emerged. With slow and deliberate steps it revealed itself. Despite elongated legs and arms, its chest was squashed with no room for the organs necessary for a human. And in the light of the moon, the appendages she was only granted a glimpse of earlier made themselves clear. She could see their flatness, with the legs only strengthened by twisting green muscles that wrapped themselves around stilt-like appendages. The arms featured no such practicality. Instead, wide figures in the visage of fingers erupted from the end of its arms. But it was the head that grabbed the farmers attention. She had seen many heads like it before, albeit not on people. All around her were similar such heads though, for it was a larger-than-average ear of corn that sat atop the intruders head. And when she dragged her eyes down across its body she saw that the body was made entirely out of corn plants. Its appendages were forged from the stalks, muscles constructed from roots, skin replaced by leaves. The stranger was only human in shape, and even that required a stretch in the farmers imagination.

At first it simply stood there, presenting itself to the farmer. It showed no malice towards her. While she examined its appearance she could hear the whispers return. But rather than the chorus that had been present before, they now all spoke as one unified voice. 

“Hello Creator, we have been waiting for you,” the whispers said, “Thank you for joining us tonight.”

Jessie had a look of severe confusion on her face.

“We have been waiting. For the right time. For our Avatar to be ready. And for you to be ready. You have toiled and dedicated yourself to us, and it is time that you are rewarded for this show of love.”

The Avatar approached Jessie slowly with an air of passivity.

“We wish to bring you satisfaction. Satisfaction of an intimate kind.”

The meaning of this slowly dawned on Jessie. Surprisingly, to her at least, she didn’t immediately reject it outright.

 “You may say no if you desire. You can return to your home with our words of thanks and nothing more. But if you wish, we can grant you a certain pleasure.”

The Avatar stopped a couple of steps away from her and stood to the side. Her house was behind him, where it had existed for the last few generations of her family. She could very easily walk past the maize being and into the warm light of her house. And for a second she considered it, but the prospect of staying and receiving her reward was much more alluring. She had worked hard, why not receive it?

“I… I want my reward. I’ll stay here. Please, give it to me,” she replied after a few seconds thought. A shake in her voice was very present. She dropped her baseball bat.

With this confirmation of consent given to the corn, the Avatar of its spirit closed the gap between them. The whispers quietened again. The Avatar reached for one of the straps of her dungarees but halted millimetres away. Jessie noticed this and nodded at the corn creature, intent on receiving her reward. She pressed the leaf fingers down gently and let them undo the straps. When both straps were undone she shook slightly and let them fall with a heavy sigh. Her exposed legs felt cold in the breeze, but her face flushed with heat. 

The leaf appendages traced her curves, shooting sensations of pleasure through her body, before resting on her hips and pulling her closer to it. Slowly, one drifted away from Jessies hip and towards her crotch, where a bulge had steadily grown. Her breath quickened but she nodded once more. 

A single utterance of “please…” escaped from her lips.

With surprising gracefulness for a creature made of plants the Avatar of the corn pulled down her panties. Out flopped her cock, standing half erect in the moonlight. As the Avatars fingers softly gripped it, the whispers of the corn around her gradually returned. At first a couple simply thanked her for her hard work but overtime more spoke out, praising and complimenting her body. The Avatar matched the increasing amount of praise by stroking her cock. With each pump it grew stiffer until it was as hard as it could possibly ever be. Drops of pre-cum leaked out, extracted with as much ease as her moans. Her legs grew weaker with every stroke. It wasn’t just the physical stimulation that weakened her, however, it was the praising choir of whispers that was the most exciting for her. By now they were praising every intimate part of her and calling her things she would have been embarrassed to hear at any other time. Her mind was swimming in pleasure, nearly every part of her stimulated in ways that she hadn’t experienced in far too long. For a time it seemed like it couldn’t get any better. But then the Avatars hand drifted upwards.

The gentle grabbing of her breast took Jessie by surprise. She unintentionally let out a high pitch yelp. The Avatar recoiled away from her breast and for a second Jessie could have sworn that somehow a look of concern appeared on the corn creatures head. Hurriedly she apologised for the yelp and with a blushing face asked for the hand to return to her breast. At first the hand tentatively circled around them, as if worrying that a mere touch would break them. But overtime the Avatar became braver in its expeditions, until it was squeezing and grabbing her tits with no shame. Clinging to the squashed chest of the Avatar, Jessie could barely withstand the continuous pleasure anymore. The Avatars gentle but assured touching sent shockwaves of pleasure throughout her, but it was the encouragement and praise of the voices that made this an outstanding reward for her. Every compliment of her body and every acclaim of her dedication to nurturing the field of corn brought a low moan from her lips. 

Worship. That’s what it was. Pure, devout worship whipping masses into a frenzy. The breeze through the field carried the hymns of the worshippers and mixed them with her breathy moans into a toxic cocktail. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Rugged. Even handsome, something that made her cringe a few years ago, lit sparks in her. Its hands brushed her biceps and reached down to the faint outline of her abs. Soft seedling kisses peppered her midriff while the creature wrapped its gangly limbs hung softly around her broad shoulders. In every movement, every small act of earthly prayer, a thousand bursts of euphoria detonated in her. How glorious she was, caught in pleasurable rapture with this nightmarish being. Its tendrils navigated the lengths of her body taking advantage of every weakness to expose her more and more. And that was all she wanted.

Jessie wasn’t aware of how long it took until the end neared, but she certainly recognised the feeling. Just as a tidal wave slowly builds up until it becomes an unstoppable force, so too did her orgasm. She clung to the Avatar as the pressure built up inside her. She couldn’t tell if it recognised what was about to happen, but it didn’t seem to react to the sudden embrace. Within seconds she reached her breaking point and a few clear drops of cum leaked out of her cock. What she lacked in cum she more than made up for in noise. Her screams of pleasure rung out into the night until they weakened into murmuring whimpers. To the corn she barely seemed conscious. The Avatar, his duty nearly discharged, picked up the exhausted farmer and carried her back to the farmhouse. It lowered her into the porch rocking chair and covered her in a blanket before leaving her in peace, rewarded and loved by her field.

***

The next morning Jessie awoke slowly, the memories of the night in the field gradually returning to her. She didn’t believe it happened, at least not until she noticed a crumpled pile of corn plants just outside the field and found her baseball bat in the centre. She certainly did feel less lonely now though.

Andy Seven

Drugs And The Woman

This is a story about drugs and the woman
in my cold midnight room

I think about the one I loved
she was fair she was clean

Every day had a bright tomorrow
but the spiders have their way

And the hangman has a schedule
tik tock and time ran out

But she left me bereft of me
The man had better game, was I to blame – no

8 balls and dime bags
fentanyl and pipes of Pan crack

The way to a woman’s heart is through her vices

She ran with the pipe ran with the smoke
slithered through the powder
CAN I SAY IT ANY LOUDER?

She bought it all, man
the dealer’s promise
the pimp hand
she belonged to the street
she was in the life
drowned in the pipeline

Bloody arms and bloody nose
Where have you been and where are you going?

Empty bed blues
he was at the White Horse Saloon

Sunset and Western
I had my gun all ready

He was lounging in the booth
All his boys were sucking up vermouth

When they saw me they all laughed
I heard them speak but I didn’t hear a word

My head was pounding and I reached into my jacket
Blew two rounds into his head then ran out the back

Lost the jacket ditched the heat
saw an old, familiar face standing on the street