Jesus Has Left The Building by Susan Tepper

A child, I secretly wept
in my tissue 
during Stations of the Cross,
the chapel dank, dim lit
against brilliant stained glass
All the little girl voices
in repeat.
I could not bear witness 
to the man flogged
under his load, 
thorned in the valley of blood 
the shadow of death,
station by station 
that stiff pew, crumpling
the tissue my mother had provided
into dust.

Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Her most current are a poetry chap CONFESS (Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and a funky road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019).  Currently she is in pre-production of a play she adapted from an earlier novel about artist Jackson Pollock in his later years. www.susantepper.com

Angels Along The Lost Highway by Kevin M. Hibshman

The angels took a detour into the desert.
Lachrymose, they set about hedging their bets as they surveyed the expanse of sand before them.
God, that great task master, was beginning to infuriate them with his endless demands on their time.
They missed the bright neon and garish spectacle of city life.
One spoke aloud the others' thoughts:
“Immortality is wasted on the wise.”

Kevin M. Hibshman has had poems published in many journals and magazines world wide.

 In addition, he has edited his poetry zine, Fearless, since 1990 and is the author of sixteen chapbooks including Love Sex Death Dreams (Green Bean Press, 2000) and Incessant Shining (Alternating Current, 2011).

Down to Barney’s by John Drudge

 I walk down La Cienega
From Sunset 
Stilted and starched 
To Barney’s 
To get out from the rain 
Remembering you 
Like a worn vision 
In a whiskey dream 
Warm to the throat 
But cold to the heart 
Smiling in the corner 
And alone 
And I remember how we always 
Moved after that 
Familiar and ashamed 
Like the coming hours 
Of morning 

John works as a clinical social worker and is the president of a national disability management company. He holds degrees in Social Work, Psychology, and Rehabilitation Services and has studied philosophy extensively.  He is an avid traveler and a long-term student of the martial arts holding a 3rd degree black-belt in Kempo Karate. His diverse educational and experiential background gives him a broad base from which to approach many topics in his poetry. John currently lives with his wife and two children in Caledon, Ontario, Canada. 

Glistening by Susan Tepper

Look down the river 
running both ways
glistening—
A blessing or curse
confuses the fish
& darkened your pillow
while you slept
unknowing
Scarcely able to 
drum up nightmares 
this bleak—
So here you are
cast in the net
of your making

Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Her most current are a poetry chap CONFESS (Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and a funky road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019).  Currently she is in pre-production of a play she adapted from an earlier novel about artist Jackson Pollock in his later years. www.susantepper.com

PIT by Susan Tepper

for my Mother
I went to the pit 
to bury my dead
on an empty day
of stark branches.
I kept ducking.
With no clear 
view of enemies
lurking / hovering 
over the burial site:
A hole with weeds 
and rocks
blowing paper scraps.
No conclusions
for this bed.
Though she would 
understand
throwing up kisses
grateful 
I took the time.

Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry.  Her most recent titles are CONFESS (poetry published by Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and the road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019).  Tepper has received many honors and awards.  She’s a native  ) New Yorker.  www.susantepper.com

Estadio Vicente Calderon : Final Photograph by John Doyle

Atletico Madrid 3 Osasuna 0
13th November 2010
 
It was (recalling Patrick Jones)
- an everlasting -
 
skies forgetting  that white
morphs into blue,
 
traffic's drift like swarming tufts of goldfish,
beneath us, almost - the cracks of brutal
 
yet tender concrete, the man who handed me a souvenir
nine years before - gratis; I set him free too, his face
 
like an envelope burning;
the mascot was eight years old, 
 
though things change in time -
they really don’t, 
 
a grandstand 
made dizzy by bumblebees 
 
disguised by automobiles,
standing there like my grandfather 
 
all alone in the hospital corridor;
Dutch girls visit student nurse friends
 
next door -
Dutch girls who left us 
 
at the Vicente Calderon,
alone in a hotel corridor.
 
Death has an easy job, 
but must get real lonely
 
killing the beauty we find, even in concrete, 
even in death itself

John Doyle became a Mod again in the summer of 2017 to fight off his impending mid-life crisis; whether this has been a success remains to be seen. He has has two collections published to date, A Stirring at Dusk in 2017, and Songs for Boys Called Wendell Gomez in 2018, both on PSKI's Porch.

He is based in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. All he asks is that you leave your guns at the door and tie up your horses before your enter.

Death Proof by Amrita Valan

Not a woman
Not a child 
Not a ghost
Not a goddess
But a shadow
A faint shadow
A fake profile  
Of a human
A fading away
A waning away
A dying away
Never dead

The undead lives
Its proof it breathes
Stale air
Dead air

Death proof
The living dead.

I am from India, mother of two small boys. I hold a master’s degree in English literature.I have worked in BPOs, and as content creator for simulation management entrance examination papers,(deductive logic in English), as well as in the hospitality industry.(As receptionist at a five-star hotel) while awaiting results of my English honours examination. I love life, like tumbling headfirst into it, and then doing a double take to step back and observe it.I have written over a thousand poems on genres including Love, Spirituality, Family, Religion, Current affairs, Human Rights, a few short stories, funny poems and tales for my children.