John Yohe

los ombligos del mundo

the girls in Sevilla
smiling and laughing
on this cool friday night
baring dark inies and outies
in the old cobbled streets

touching a Buddha statue belly
is good luck
though some people make fun of buddhists 
who
they say
gaze on navels too much
that navels
are a path to wisdom
or self centeredness

how much wisdom
in a girl’s navel?
how much wisdom
in keeping distance
from a girl showing off her navel—
that wanting that much attention
they must have nothing inside

but I remain unenlightened enough
to want to kneel
and work my tongue
into each warm hole
to taste for myself

Noel Negele

How Was Your Weekend

after three weeks
of non-stop
12 hour shifts
you suddenly have 
a Sunday off
and you don’t know
what to do with your hands

Saturday night
you’re exhausted 
but wanting
something to happen

life tends to become 
too quiet 
with free time 
the silence is
deafening

you call Martha up

“well, well, well” she says 

at the pub she gets
too drunk 
as she tends to do
kisses you too often
too aggressively

the taste of her saliva 
lingers for days

she gives the middle finger 
to waitresses 
because she thinks 
every bipod with a vagina 
wants to fuck you—
something that 
couldn’t be further from the truth

“there is no reason
for any of that”
you tell her

she doesn’t listen 

brandishes an empty 
Asahi beer bottle
in the air

a door man grabs her 
by the elbow
tries to be nice about it too

You put your palm
in his sweaty armpit 
and push him away
as if he was a toddler 
even though 
he’s three times your weight 

“they’d think 
an animal got a hold of you 
not a human being”

you’re hauled outside 
of the lights and the music 
from three pairs of arms
like you’re somebody’s 
dirty laundry 

blood’s coming down 
your nose,
your right eyebrow 
bleeding too

she sobers up all of a sudden

pulls you out of the 
violent confusion

you go back to your apartment 
with three bottles of Italian wine

she talks so much 
without saying anything 

it’s more noise
than your deafening loneliness

she’s so young 

she’s noise and tits 
and thick lips
and a poorly shaved pussy

sometimes you get so drunk 
you come across 
the charging elephant
in the room—
your sadness spreads 
all around everything you touch
like an oil spill
smothering wild life

she puts your dick
in her mouth 
as the room spins 
like a shred of cloth 
caught in the blades
of a chopper

all you can focus on
is the yellow stains 
on the ceiling 

you think
you need to call the plumber
one of these days 

you think
one of these days
those yellow stains 
will start to drip
something awful 
onto your bed 

you wonder if 
something like that might 
be the thing to make 
you angry enough to pull
that trigger finally 

you think of suicide letters
and how many of them
cried while writing them

you think 
you’re so lonely and sad
or sad and lonely 
or sad because you’re lonely 
or lonely because you’re sad
that perhaps no matter 
how many people you 
introduce to your misery 
they won’t help it

You worry 
you’re going 
to have to put the
scaffolding around 
your broken heart 
yourself 
and try to build it 
back up again 
on your own

you think 
about the only woman you ever loved 
and how probable
it is she’s a mother now
five years after your break up

you lose your erection
and
she takes it personally

“What’s this?”
she asks
holding your shrinking cock
in a tight grip 
like an inflatable thing 
losing shape 

(you imagine 
a butterfly turning
into a caterpillar )

“it’s not you” you say,
“it’s me. I’m empty. 
there’s nothing there.”

your soul is
an infinitely empty 
chasm

but try to explain that 

“You soft peckered nonce!” 
she screams 
jumping out of bed

her clothes 
in a ball
against her tits

“don’t ever call me again.”

she tries to spit at you
but it never reaches you

you get hard again
all of a sudden 

“something terribly
 wrong with you”
says a voice 
at the back of your skull

you step to the window
to watch her go
and you see her
key-ing the side of your 
shitty Honda 
before disappearing
into the night 

you smile— 
hurt makes for
ludicrous characters 

you notice your
reflection in the window—
a pale face 
with wine stained lips
like the lips of a clown
halfway from taking
his make up off

You drink 
the last of the bottle 
and slip into a restless sleep
littered with nightmares 
of dogs tearing you
to pieces.

Monday morning 
coworkers ask you 

“How was your weekend?”

It was alright 
you tell them 
what about yours?

John Grochalski

millionaire

leaving
the job
for the weekend

to spend
forty-eight hours
on the couch

acting like
a drunken 
millionaire

without a care in the world

until i wake up
into the horror

of the monday morning
work day

beholden 
to america again

nothing
but a pauper 

with cheap vodka
and stale wine

on his breath.

Nathaniel Sverlow

bedside manner

“I’m going to put
a finger 
in your ass!”

moving her other hand
down my balls

“the hell you are!”
I say, jumping up

“c’mon, it’ll feel good”

“so help me,
if one cuticle
makes it in,
I’ll slap you
into next year”

her fingers trailed down
my taint

“you think I’m bluffing??”

“I think you’re curious”

she pressed against
my hole,
pushed in,
and I slapped her 
off the bed

“what’d you think?”
she said,
climbing back up

we both looked down
at my cock
twitching
and spitting
like a madman

“ah, hell,” I said,
“let’s give it 
another shot”

“I told you
it’d feel good”

“you sure did,
baby”

and she shoved it in
this time

and I squealed 
like a stuck pig

and she laughed
like I had it coming

for my poor
bedside manner

Damon Hubbs

The Last Romantic

he spoke about her pussy 
in terms of art—
a dampness like Vermeer
a Monet water lily
from a certain angle
on the cheap four-poster bed
like Van Gogh’s severed ear

she sighed 
and lit a cigarette
said she didn’t care for art 
and kindly told him 
he’d have to pay extra
if he wanted to leave the lights on 
next time 

R.M. Engelhardt

In the Last Days of the Obvious Unknown Words

Here lies the voices:

The visions
The repetitions

Of a generation
That cannot
Move on

Let go

Or
Find truth
Beauty or
Meaning

On their own

As they follow
And worship the
Already well known
Well worn paths

Looking for
Fame

Or a
A status

Perhaps
Some brilliant sign
Like a star in the sky

As all the artists
Poets & rock stars

Have already
Left the building

Checked out.

Bowie &
Frida

Kerouac &
Bukowski

Had nothing
To say

With no likes, sad frowns
Love

Or comments

Thoughts
Transcendental or
Heartbroken

No meme
Comes with this
Poem

No new movement
Or a revelation

Wisdom or
Solace

For these are
All the things

You must
Find

On your own

In your own soul
Own words

For
Here lies the voices:

The visions
The repetitions

Of a generation
That cannot
Move on

Dead &
Unnoticed

Unremarkable
& unremembered

In their own
Fire &
In their
Own time

Unknown

Anthony Dirk Ray

Woodstock Doc

I recently watched a 
documentary about Woodstock 99
it was appalling how quickly
things got out of control in
regards to the riots and fires
especially after being given
peace candles nonetheless  
I was extremely saddened by the 
blatant groping and fondling of 
young women brave enough to go 
topless or full nude in
front of 400,000 people
300,000 of which being young
white, sex-starved, angry males
think someone who believed “Nookie”
by Limp Bizkit was a good song

then the dismal reality hit –
I was 23 in 1999
a poster child for the 
aforementioned class

so with poignant regret 
I have to admit
if I had been in Rome that weekend
I possibly could have thrown
a propane tank into a fire 
looted a bit or squeezed a 
crowd surfing passerby boob myself 

but as far as the LB…
they lost me after Three Dollar Bill, Y’all

Gary Minkler

I’m Not an Astronaut (I’m a Nut)

I am a citizen 
I was born 
in the northwest corner
of these United States

I know I’m not a lot
I’m not even a spot
On the map
and an astronaut
would not know where I am at
Looking down from outer space
he would not see me

But, sitting in my little room
I can see him
he’s on my tv

I‘m using my telephone
I’m making a call
to the president of all
these United States.

I know he’s busy 
but gee
he ought to listen to me
after all I listen to him 
when he talks to me 
on my tv

But he can never hear my call
I guess he’s too big and I’m too small
he can not see me

I’m buying a gun
The gun I’m buying
is a big one
sold in the U.S.

I’m gonna blow a hole
in a famous face
I’m gonna put my face
in that famous place
Then even an astronaut
up in outer space
he would see me

And sitting in there little rooms
others would know who I am
I’d be on their tvs

Damon Hubbs

Hit Parade

I’m a shirtless man with an axe. 
You’re a wanton woman in a state of undress. 
The sky is live and heavy.
We eat blue oysters on the sunset strip 

& party with Mr. Rainbow
in the back of an airbrushed van.
We capriole in a crystal ball
sweep picking the road to the rim.

The clouds are high drum risers.
The sun is a wheel of steel.
You parade your ass like a greatest hit
& monsters of rock rise from the sea 

J.J. Campbell

for all the answers you need

two thirty in the morning and 
coltrane is wailing about some 
lost love

the last drops of scotch are gone

the spanish princess awaits me 
in my dreams

this is what happens when you make 
it to the other side and realize hype 
kills everything

the grass is greener but you don’t 
want to know what is in those chemicals

wait twenty years and an oncologist 
will gladly bill you for all the answers 
you need

where all the superheroes are taking bribes

and every broken soul believes there 
is a pole out there where they will 
be a star

fifteen minutes have become 
fifteen seconds

fading like a fart in the ocean

one of those nights where your head 
won’t fit in the toaster

all the knives are dull

three hundred channels and still 
nothing worth watching

crawl into bed and wait for the 
quiet death that never comes