David Estringel

Blue Light

Leaning against an old Chevrolet on Maudlin Street, I smoke a cigarette—hard—chuckling at the hisses and howls of alley cats beneath the butcher shop’s broken neon sign. They flick their tails and prowl about, pestering fellas headed home to cold wives and cold dinners, straight from the misery of their long evening shifts. Persistent, with purrs and claws—smooth as cream— they graze oily pant legs (and thighs) for want of a rub…or two. Tossing my smoke at the sidewalk—a cherry-bomb explosion drawing the glow of hungry eyes—a young, new one to the corner catches my eye, preening her strawberry-yellow hair, distracted by night shadows that stretch and duck in the periphery. I light another smoke and call her over with a “Psst,” motioning with my hand, as tracers from a flaming tip pull heads from her pounce in unison, to and fro. Cautiously, she turns to me, as the sign overhead begins to flicker blue, casting a harsh pallor upon angled faces with its undead light. Calling her over, again, she slowly heads my way—eyes shining and features soft. “What’s tonight’s special?” I ask, as she pulls the cigarette from my newly shaken fingers and takes a drag. Letting out a long sigh, she blows a steady stream of spite—sweet—into my face, and jabs, “A pound of flesh with a side of soul. Hungry?” looking as if she’d heard that line one too many times. “Nah,” I answered (a burn taking over my cheeks), “not tonight.” Then I turned and walked away down Maudlin Street—not looking back—wishing I knew her name, loving her.

***

Originally published in Terror House Magazine

Brian Rosenberger

Silence is Golden

He no longer goes to bars.
Happy hours are to be avoided.
Too much talk about sports, politics, 
Religion or relationships.
Those problems endure regardless 
Of what the patrons drink.
 
Depression, best consumed shot by shot,
In the shadows, by yourself.
It goes down much smoother,
With ice or not. 
Certainly without conversation.
 
His preferred glass, Evan Williams and Pepsi,
Or just bourbon and more bourbon.
The calories, not a concern. 
No judgment.
He knows the bartender, after all.
The soundtrack of his demise, his future,
Probably both. Various podcasts, music, 
The sometimes TV shows,
Or his damn arguing neighbors.
Sound travels in his subdivision.
He delights to the sound of barking dogs,
As long as it’s not his dogs.
Never a fan of leaf-blower symphonies
Or fucking lawn mowers.
He prefers the occasional gunshots. 
More final.
 
He drinks in darkness, in sunshine
Today, a sky full of dark and threatening skies. 
The Sun, a tomorrow away.
It could be Heaven. It could be Hell.
He never waits long for the next glass.

Ruth Niemiec

Small Talk

I think you misunderstood
I ordered an oat milk latte
This is clearly a cow’s milk latte

Let me make it clear
I don’t want milk from the bosom
of an animal
of a mammal
Oats suit me just fine
crush them,
pulverise them
mmm make it violent
Yum, yum

I don’t ask for blood transfusions
I want my blood
in my veins
dripping wet gold
on my chains

I think you misunderstood me
Just the coffee beans with oat milk
Thanks
That’s enough to wake me
from the dread of existence
Take the sleep
from my eyes
Take a hit
that dark blend
ahhh
and hope that I awake to
motivate myself to
run to work sweating
sit at my desk and say thanks
and yes

I ask my former self
the sperm
why did you swim
so fast
are you punishing me for pain

Sorry mister!
Barista!
I zoned out, haha
sorry, yes, no, thank you

Yeah, I just prefer oat milk in my lattes
Have a great day

Ruth Niemiec

We Are All Made Here

The year is 2021
I switch to drinking coffee
exclusively
and relish in the fact
that lockdown has provided
the opportunity to indulge
in the reclusive life
of a hermit

I always envied J.D Salinger
not only for his literary brilliance but his madness too

Jealous that people said J.D
drank his own urine
Maybe this is what my psychic meant
when she said
“all your dreams will come true”
I’ve never had ordinary dreams
I wonder what they feel like
and do they have a taste

I wonder what it feels like
not to obsess over
long uninterrupted stretches of solitude
and the availability of them
to be enchanted
by every person I meet

I am a triple
fire baby
with nothing to even me out
I will blame it on that

For a sense of community
let’s just say
we are all mad here
all made here

Anyway,
about the coffee

Judson Michael Agla

Remnants

It was just before the dawn of the end of the world, and what a better way to shake things up than an extinction level event delivered right to your doorstep like a paper bag full of steaming shit. This inevitable catastrophe was of course due to the eventual onslaught of an abrupt climatic clusterfuck, caused by people, because people are fucking stupid. Having no way to stop or slow this from happening, people turned to their only historically respectable advantageous of behaviours, which were alcoholism, ferocious recreational drug use, and murder without discretion or empathy. 

Our city planners were tasked with arranging a huge party to celebrate the event, which would begin as soon as possible, and end when everybody was either dead or on a spaceship, the latter being less likely. After all, our city boasted one of the most glamourous of venues just outside of it’s limits; a gigantic estate that was just recently dubbed both an historical landmark and an architectural death trap. This venue was chosen partially because of its multicultural heritage; Once owned by rich white people, built by enslaved black people, and situated on the burial grounds of first nations people. The ballroom in the main building could accommodate five thousand rich people or ten thousand normal people, although, those numbers were most likely outdated as the entire structure had been sinking on the west side since completion, apparently building codes at the time viewed sand and dead bodies as an acceptable foundation.

The party was essentially for the most elitist of the elite citizens of the world; billionaires, movie stars, professional athletes, and anyone rich enough to purchase, cage, and eat poor people. Rich and famous cocksuckers were to be flown in from the four corners of the globe, however, those flights would not be returning, as surprisingly to most, a globe does not have any corners. However, there was a plentiful stock of fuck-heads who fit the bill within driving distance to overflow the joint with thousand-dollar party gowns, hairdos, and purse dwelling over-inbred rat-dogs.

This celebratory atrocity was going to be holding the largest herd of dull, egocentric, narcissistic, oppressive, second amendment spewing, right wing, slave trading, pedophiliac, oil pumping, tax evading cocksuckers collectively wearing more plastic implants than actual body parts, ever to soil a single venue, and I was going to crash the fucker.

I had nothing to wear that cost any more than free, so I put together my old clown suit that I used to wear when I lived underground beside a gas station (they were dark and cryptic times), I’d be arriving posing as the entertainment, and the bright, sickening, and somewhat blinding colors of the costume would surely camouflage my grenade belt, as well as take notice away from my bag of angry rats, that was in fact clearly labeled “Bag of Angry Rats” (the dark and cryptic times never really quite ended for me).

So, the glorious day finally came into fruition, and playing my part as accurately, and believable as I could, I rolled up to castle douche bag on my pink tricycle, just fucking loaded up on P.C.P., vodka, and a shitload of prescription pills that I liberated from a dumpster about a year and a half ago. After a short period of dry heaving, and pissing out of my ass in the bushes, I bravely staggered up to the main entrance, ready to defend myself against expulsion, I was heavily armed, and the rats were real fucking hungry, but I managed to walk right in without the slightest incident, some plastic rich bitch even asked “who” I was wearing.

Once inside, I couldn’t help but notice the wretched stench, comparable to that of stewing hot rigor coming from a discarded oil drum, haphazardly dumped on a Florida beach. The music stage had already been sacked by a madman with a tenuous mortal coil, half dead, and seemingly possessed by a very fucking pissed off alien entity, he was spewing a continuous entourage of obscenities at the guests through the thick rancid clouds of cigar smoke, and the ever-present fumes of the original lead-based paint that blanketed the entire estate.

The nicotine-stained windows that covered the ceiling revealed an untimely imposing blackened sky, like some ethereal force had parked its ass overhead, and was ready to blow a wretched form of damnation out from its bowels. An overwhelming feeling of impending doom abruptly came over me, as I sensed the undeniable presence of torturous unrest, and a distasteful wrath of god like vengeance. It became quite obvious to me that the guest list was expanding; the dead were here, and I was beginning a crash course covering the true nature of the machinery of dying.

As I staggered through this awesome nightmare, I already knew that bat-shit crazy was the pre-determined destination, and things hadn’t even hit the on-ramp yet. The chaotic mess continued as some assholes let the guard dogs into the ballroom, who immediately sniffed out the over in-bred purse dwelling smaller rat-dogs, and ripped the fuckers apart with ferocious ease, and malice that even I had never seen. Usually, blood spray on the walls evidenced that a party was going well, but this was much different, and these devil dogs had only begun to sooth their famine. The guests, like gazelles on the Serengeti, began to sacrifice their own, by tossing smaller, weaker, and less popular individuals into the epicenter of the slaughter, until the dogs’ stomachs finally burst open from the inside out, and fell into a long horrific multitude of death throes.

I’ve seen my share of horror, and sick human born atrocities, I’ve even committed some, but this venue, on this night, had yet to show me the true meaning of darkness. Some of the spectacles were Russian roulette, played with fully loaded revolvers, twisted versions of traditional cock fights, pitting poor blind children against each other, with razor wire wrapped around their hands and feet, experimental surgeries, both rearranging, and exchanging appendages, and organs, bowling with babies taped to explosives, the consuming of cleaning products, gasoline, and lighter fluid, and the accusing and burning of those believed to be witches. Things were really getting fucking medieval in there. 

Superseding the feelings of horror and disgust, a strange sense of disappointment surfaced, I had come with the intensions of protest, to be the voice of the meek and disenfranchised, seek vengeance for economic discrimination and the child sex trade business. I wanted to kill people with a rusty meat cleaver, set off a few grenades and bring down the ceiling, set loose to my angry bag of rats and witness slow death with ring side seats, convince people that god was dead and heaven had been sacked by reptilian aliens, but none of this would hold any meaningful viscosity or potency. I was a snake with no venom, a crusader without a sword or any belief in misguided fairy tales, these sub-human monsters had already long ago fallen from the grace of their gods. 

I realized that despite my best efforts, I couldn’t commit any atrocity that these fuck-monsters weren’t already doing to themselves, I’d lost all propulsion driving my hateful disgust for humanity, they’d even began horrific acts of cannibalism which I was planning to provoke as my grand finale, I’d be the one man to actually get the rich to eat themselves. 

My bloody insurrection was a total failure before it ever began, and there was no way I was going to let my rats eat their way through this party, it was far below even their standards, if you can even believe it, I had to feed them cooked food, which confused the fuck out of them. So, I grabbed a bottle of vodka from the bar and sat down to do as much P.C.P. as humanly possible, but you know, it just didn’t taste quite the same.

As I sat there, snorting my way towards destiny and damnation, with bloody nose and freshly soiled clown pants, a woman sat down beside me. She was modestly clothed, and obviously shared no union or compliance with the goings on of this insipid mortal hell spinning unbridled all around us. She was blessed with a calming beauty and noticeable empathy, and somehow, sensed my distress, and incontinence. She took my hand in hers and spoke from a star-lit wisdom that far surpassed any fortune cookie I’d ever read. She went on to say; “There are two kinds of people in this world my friend; those with loaded guns, and those who dig”, I was so gloriously surprised to hear my favorite quote from the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, my distress began to dissipate, and a new enigmatic form of understanding washed over me. There wasn’t going to be any heroes in this story, only the bravery to accept my own tenuous mortal coil, the clockworks behind the machinery of dying, and the detonator she pulled from her purse, that I was privileged to press, my hand over hers.

J.J. Campbell

flows like water

i had a friend tell me 
years ago, if i was serious
about suicide i should write 
the note in blood
 
this is what happens when 
the gin flows like water
 
old girlfriends have nothing 
but evil dripping out of
their eyes
 
dead grandparents start 
telling stories from the 
great depression
 
the old poets will make 
you understand what 
heartbreak really is
 
and your lady of the night
 
her lips will taste like
what hope used to be
 
you feign choking on
your own brilliance
 
an old trick learned
back when your ego 
was still unbreakable
 
now that fucker is riddled
with so many bullets the 
alcohol never stays in
 
put up a good fight
and never forget 
 
you always have an irish 
goodbye tucked in your 
back pocket

Lamont A. Turner

Finger Pudding

“There’s a fucking finger in my pudding!” Chester shouted. 

Everyone leaned forward over the table to stare into the bowl of brown slop while Chester poked at it with his spoon. 

“You’re nuts!” Brett said, shaking his head in disgust. “Anything to get attention!”

“It was right there! I saw it!” Chester insisted, brown sludge and whipped cream spattering onto his wrists as he punished the pudding with his spoon.

“Hey! Maybe this is one of those vision things!” Thad suggested. “Chester might be seeing into the future again.”

Everyone stood back and examined their fingers. Chester was renowned as a prophet. Ever since old man Ross had been picked up for dealing meth just a week after Chester claimed he’d had a vision of the old man behind bars, Chester had been a minor celebrity.  Ross had been one of those proverbial pillars of the community, and nobody had any reason to suspect he was a dealer, least of all Chester who had never met the man. People started consulting Chester before playing the lottery or buying a used car.

“Chester thinks penicillin makes you gay,” Brett said. “The guy would be wearing a tinfoil hat if he could figure out how to make one cover the point on his head.”

“Remember that time he said Ricky Toombs would knock up his cousin?” Thad said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Tell me how he knew that was going to happen?”

“The DNA test hasn’t come back yet,” Brett retorted. “Besides, everybody knows Ricky’s a pervert. It’s not like it would be a big surprise if the kid is his.”

“So when’s it gonna happen, Chester? When will one of us lose a finger?” asked Toby, the youngest of the bunch, prompting Brett to smack him in the back of the head.

“You clowns wanna hide your fingers for the rest of your lives, be my guest,” Brett said, spreading his hands out palm down on the table. “I’m gonna…”

He was cut off by a mass of flying cutlery as a passing waitress tripped; pushing the tray she was carrying toward him as she fell. Chairs scooted back, as everyone rushed to avoid the wave of french fries and malted milk cascading toward them. 

It was only after Thad had helped the waitress back to her feet and everyone had wiped the ketchup from their faces that they noticed Brett was still sitting, staring at the mass of forks and broken glass on the table. His hands were under it. 

“Damn, dude! You hurt?” Thad asked, noticing the blood dripping off the edge of the table.    

Gritting his teeth, Brett extricated his right hand from the mess, and swept the rubble to the floor, uncovering a left hand with a shard of glass stuck in the webbing between his index and middle finger. It looked like his index finger had been cut to the bone.

“Chester was right!” Toby exclaimed, making sure to stay out of the reach of Brett’s good hand. “Look at your finger!”

Brett scowled at Chester who stood a few feet away, basking in the glow of his latest triumph. 

“Better wipe that grin off your puss,” Brett said, holding his hand up and squeezing the wrist as he got up. “I still got another hand to…” He sat back down, trying to get his eyes to focus. The manager came over to tell him an ambulance was on the way, but Brett was only aware of the blood rushing in his ears.

***

Brett ended up needing six stitches but, as he stressed to Toby as they left the ER, the finger was still attached. Toby dropped him off as his apartment, and offered to stay, but Brett insisted he was fine. He watched Toby drive off before changing into a shirt that wasn’t covered in blood and stuffing the keys to his Dodge into his right pocket.

Twenty minutes and three shots of gin later, Brett pounded on the door of the leaky aluminum box Chester pretended was a home. Getting no response, he kicked at it until the door started bending in its frame and he heard a voice shouting from inside.

“You’re going to break my door!” Chester yelled, flinging the door open just as Brett was pulling back his leg to administer the coup de grace. Brett responded by slamming his right fist into Chester’s face, knocking him back onto the piles of dirty laundry and Styrofoam dinner trays on the floor of the trailer.

“You tripped that waitress!” Brett bellowed, standing over Chester. He bent down, grabbed a handful of Chester’s shirt and reared back with his left hand to deliver another punch before remembering that hand was out of commission. Instead he let Chester drop, and gave him a kick in the side as he landed.

“You’re crazy!” Chester shouted, coughing up red tinged saliva as he held up his hands to ward off the next blow.

“I’m crazy? I’m not the loser who has to pretend he has some kind of magic voodoo powers to get people to notice him!”

“They’re real,” Chester sobbed. “I can see things!”

“Sure you can,” Brett said, giving him another kick.  As Brett’s heart raced, a haze filled the room. He was beginning to feel light-headed from the mix of pain killers and booze, along with the blood loss. Stumbling back a little, he reached out for a floor lamp to steady himself, but the lamp went over, taking him with it. His head hit the floor hard.

He was only out for a minute, but it was long enough for Chester to recover and grab a cinder block from out in the yard. As Brett opened his eyes, he saw a gray shadow rushing at him followed by a flash of light, and then darkness. 

Not wanting too much of a mess to clean up, Chester dragged Brett down the stack of boards that served as steps and out into the grass before dropping the block on his head again, and again, and again. After finally catching his breath, Chester went in and found his cell phone in the cushion of the ratty recliner facing the television. He dropped into the recliner and rang up Thad.

“Guess what,” he said into the phone as Thad picked up. “I just had another vision.”

Danny D. Ford

Syphilis Street

After the supermarket
we left the edge of the park
and headed up the hill

Our bags were full
and heavy
polythene stretching with the weight
of cartons,
courgettes, wine, blue cheese
beers, beans, bread, 
and raw hams

at the end of the boulevard
we turned left
not right

not knowing

we found things
when we turned left
wet things

scaling the hill
a slow but steady flow
of tissues and condoms
littered the broken concrete

our sandal clad toes 
treaded carefully between 
old stains and busted latex

at first
it was funny
maybe a ‘Napoletani’ dogging spot

but
fifteen minutes later
the sporadic splutter of spunk wreckage
became a spate
of sewage

we played hopscotch
in the human slop

then the cars appeared

three of them
the first silver 
and inconspicuous enough

as we passed
we saw sheets shut in the window
like a kids’ den curtains

the second was black
smaller
and slightly rocking

“look at it rocking!” we exclaimed
and the rocking slowed

we didn’t feel bad though
about putting them off their stroke
after all
it was 5:30 in the afternoon
on a hot summer’s day
and we just wanted a bus stop
to rest our legs and luggage

***

From: Sunshine Junkie, Between Shadows Press

Wes Janson

The Bicycle Ride

I woke up this morning
And washed my face
Then I stepped outside
Willing to embrace…

Another day
Shining bright and clear
With beautiful memories
That I hold so dear

The day was too lovely
To stay inside
So I decided to go
For a bicycle ride

I felt so happy and so complete
As I peddled my bicycle
Down the street

And the warmth of the sun
Made me feel so free
With blessings of hope
And endless glee

And the feeling inside
Was ever so bright
As the coming of dawn
Had taken over the night

And I knew there was something
From which I had gone astray
Something I missed
Because I had looked away

But I found it again
And words couldn’t explain
How the rays of light
Had shown through the rain

Because I already knew
All the answers I sought
So I cast off the burden
Of my repetitive thought

And there was no longer a need
For me to look to the skies
Because it was only the light
Reflecting off of my eyes

And I no longer question
The absolute presence
Of the formless truth
Behind eternal essence

And I remember the past
Because I can finally see
That I took many roads
On my way to destiny

And as the light and the love
Kept growing inside
I began to realize
That I can no longer hide

For what we all have
And the reasons we care
Points to our main purpose
Which is to selflessly share

And when inner-love
Is outwardly projected
We know the truth
That we are all connected

And then I began
To be honest with Wes
And I had an Epiphany
That words can’t express

A realization
To which I’d been blind
Always known by my heart
Never known by my mind

And when I knew the truth
I felt free as a bird
But I didn’t realize
I had ran into a curb

I flew off my bike
And smashed into a wall
Only scraped one of my knees…
But punctured both of my BALLS!

David J. Thompson

It’s Come True

I was in the delivery room for the birth,
couldn’t tell there was anything wrong-
the baby just a gooey, crying mess. Later, 
after they cleaned it up, the nurse turned
her head when she handed him to me.
When I pulled back the little blue blanket
to see my son’s face for the first time,
I was ready to coo and make silly faces,
but instead all I said was, Oh, shit, walked
quickly over to the bed and shoved him 
at my wife. Goddamnit, I said. It’s come true.

It was a Friday night about nine months ago,
we were both worn out by the work week.
We were feeling silly, watching a Tarzan movie
on TCM, and drinking way too fucking much
of my homemade banana wine. We started
horsing around on the couch as we watched
Cheetah laughing and dancing around clapping
when the always near- naked Tarzan and Jane 
disappeared into their tree house love nest.
We, too, then shut off the tv, grabbed the rest
of the yellow nectar, and bounded into the bedroom. 
I helped her pulled off her jeans in a hurry, and 
she got on top of me with my pants still around 
my ankles. Oh, my God, she said when we were 
finished with each other and sharing a cigarette.
Your banana wine is going to make a monkey out of me.