Poetry from Duane Vorhees

THIS STREET

This warm wide street

murders the infant ice.

It carries benefit and debt

from Perdition to Paradise.

It’s walked by gamblers and planners,

sharers of a barrel

or a quarrel.

Perceived to be staid

by beseechers and besiegers

looking for worship or a war,

by flatterers, benefactors,

prophets, and the perfidious–

it’s radical and erratic,

as wild as a wave.

PHASES

1

The horned owl would hunt at night.

I watched it from an egg,

blinked

and couldn’t find its flight.

Worried that it went extinct,

unable to sleep, I mourned

until I found, faint, its horns.

2

Fishes glimmer in the nets

spread across the deep.

Trapped, they surrender to death

in their cold, dark, and cramped keep.

But, oh! What schools they inspired;

when stars spawned, no one higher.

3

The orange on the sky tree

is burnished like polished brass

trumpeting Eternity’s

emergence from a dark past.

How sweetly that orange glows

all today and tomorrow.

ROSES OR LOTUS, LINE AND POLE

My self lives with several selves

that confront, ignore, cooperate.

Sometimes the Army of Roses quelled

rivals with promises of passion.

The Lotus Ashram would dominate

through its acceptance of inaction.

Or I’d be the weathered bosun’s mate

on discovery from Line to Pole.

I oscillated from soul to soul.

I joined that Army but deserted

when I learned passion had gone awol.

Alas, when romance eluded me

I tried the Ashram to forget it.

I got to Bali and Moosonee

but then got strapped to mast, unshirted.

Now content, selves meld with line and pole.

BESTIALITY

White teeth

I mourn–

they’re shorn

like sheep–

and bones

grown limp

like shrimp

and prawns.

My thumb,

adrift,

a skiff

of chum;

my tongue,

threatened

vegan

dugong.

The knees

wobble

and stall

like bees,

and toes

crackle,

rattle

like crows.

The heart

quivers,

shivers–

tense hart.

A MAN’S MOTIVATION, EXCUSE, AND RULE

An idea, an acre,

an ounce, an inch of skin–

a man’s motivation

for mayhem may be quite thin.

By fiat, by fire, by fist,

by bullet, or by blade–

a man’s excuse and rule

can be tradition or trade,

opportunity or lust,

inspiration, or luck.

A try will lose, will triumph

through cowardice, through pluck.

Poetry from Noah Berlatsky

Get Out of the Water

Jellyfish float like lungs in the sea

and lungs float like jellyfish in a different sea.

Everything is breathing with life and ick.

That is the kind of pantheism we are talking about.


Every beach is on the edge of another beach

and you can walk there on the jellyfish.

They pulse with the transparency of borders.

Our lungs yearn to mate and evolve in the jellylike sea.


We will never stop evolving.

The jellyfish are going to kick your ass, God

with their universal love that stings.

Poetry from Henry Bladon

The Sweet Smell of Chaos 

The frantic fizzle-frazzle fanatic,
pounding the sidewalk 
proposing splintered logic
and energised by hypertrophic rhythm.

Pulsating patterns propound
a maelstrom mindset, 
a confused calibration
housed in a chocolate-stained cabinet.

The metallic clang 
from a spoonful of sympathy 
is mixed in a sunlit side room.

Sudden alchemy from a cobalt portal. 
The succulent sound of ozone.
The taste of psychic salvation.

Someone crunches on a red apple
and starts to cough.

 
Dark Matter

There was a hippy unreality in my dream.
I was in an online echo chamber
where thoughts queued for attention
and words were bending into a black hole.

The background was populated
with pixelated memories 
of the 90s rave scene 
and pieces of leftover pizza.

There was anxiety when
conversational voids appeared
in a debate concerning
early climate change warnings.

The galactic rulers filled the space
with free streaming particles
and announced that cosmic microwaves 
would be available in all new-build cosmic houses.

In the corner of a park,
a man was standing on a box 
and yelling into a broken megaphone,
asking: if we can’t see it, 
does dark matter really matter?

Short story from Gustavo M. Galliano

Middle aged Latino man with short brown hair standing in front of a painting of rocks against a red and orange and yellow desert landscape. He's wearing a black short sleeve shirt.
Gustavo M. Galliano
ÚLTIMA GRAN PANDEMIA 
Por Gustavo M. GALLIANO

	Nadie supo cómo, donde o porqué surgió. Bastó su génesis para que se propagara por todo el desprevenido planeta, y ya no hubo retorno. Contagio total, sin tiempo de medicinas.
	Me ha contado en secreto mi amigo imaginario Xerafín que el huésped primario fue un humano. Que decidió abrir su pecho  y exclamar,  en sincero  frenesí,  las  tres fantásticas palabras: “¡Solidaridad, Resiliencia y Paz!”.
	Al instante, el virus se propago por el aire, pandémico,  vinculando  cuerpos, mentes y almas, en cada rincón.  El planeta muto, sus habitantes no volvimos a ser los mismos. 
	Y ese día fue hoy.-


LAST GREAT PANDEMIC 
By Gustavo M. GALLIANO

       No one knew how, where or why it arose. Its genesis was enough for it to spread throughout the unsuspecting planet, and there was no return. Total contagion, no time for medicines.
       I have been secretly told by my imaginary friend Xerafin that the primary host was a human. That he decided to open his chest and exclaim, in sincere frenzy, the three fantastic words: "Solidarity, Resilience and Peace!".
       Instantly, the virus spread through the air, pandemic, linking bodies, minds and souls, in every corner. The planet mutated, its inhabitants were never the same again.
And that day was today.-

BREVE BIOGRAFÍA de:

Prof. Gustavo Marcelo GALLIANO.

          Nacido en Gödeken, Santa Fe, República Argentina. Escritor, poeta, Jurado en certámenes literarios Internacionales. Periodismo digital. Docente Universitario de la Facultad de Derecho de la UNR, en la asignatura Historia Constitucional Argentina. Miembro del CICSO (Centro de investigaciones en Ciencias Sociales). Secretario Técnico de REDIM.     

          Se ha desempeñado como Corresponsal Especial en diversas revistas internacionales de Arte y Literatura (Cañ@santa, Sinalefa, ViceVersa, Long Island al Día, RosannaMúsica, etc).

          Integra la Red de Escritores en Español (REMES), Poetas de Mundo, Unión Hispano-Mundial de Escritores (UHE), la Fundación César Égido Serrano, Naciones Unidas de las Letras (Ave Viajera y Proyecto Mundial Semillas de Juventud), entre otras. Actualmente es colaborador especial de Revista Poética AZAHAR (España), Revista Literaria-artístico PLUMA y TINTERO (España), Revista Literaria KENAVÒ (Italia) y Revista OFRANDA LITERARA (Rumania) donde también integra el Colegio Editorial.

          Ha obtenido distinciones y premios en certámenes y concursos internacionales de cuentos, narrativa, micro relato y poesía. Publicó libros (LA CITA, 5 AUTORES) y participe  de antologías y revistas publicadas y traducidas en más de 100 países.

          Ha sido designado como Embajador de la Palabra y la Paz por diversas instituciones: WWPO (USA), Círculo de Embajadores Universales de la Paz (Francia / Suiza), Fundación César Égido Serrano y Museo de la Palabra (España).

          Reside en Rosario, Santa Fe, República Argentina.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY of:

Prof. Gustavo Marcelo GALLIANO

Born in Gödeken, Santa Fe, Argentine Republic. Writer, poet, jury in international literary contests. Digital journalism. University Professor at the Faculty of Law of the UNR, in the subject Argentine Constitutional History. Member of CICSO (Social Sciences Research Center). REDIM Technical Secretary.

He has worked as a Special Correspondent for various international Art and Literature magazines (Cañ @ santa, Sinalefa, ViceVersa, Long Island al Día, RosannaMúsica, etc).

He is a member of the Red de Escritores en Español (REMES), Poetas de Mundo, Union Hispano-Mundial de Escritores (UHE), the César Égido Serrano Foundation, the United Nations of Letters (Ave Viajera and the World Seeds of Youth Project), among others. Currently he is a special contributor to AZAHAR Poetic Magazine (Spain), PLUMA and TINTERO Literary-artistic Magazine (Spain), KENAVÒ Literary Magazine (Italy) and OFRANDA LITERARA Magazine (Romania) where he is also a member of the Editorial College.

He has obtained distinctions and prizes in international contests and contests for short stories, narrative, short story and poetry. He published books (LA CITA, 5 AUTORES) and participated in anthologies and magazines published and translated in more than 100 countries.

He has been designated as Ambassador of the Word and Peace by various institutions: WWPO (USA), Circle of Universal Ambassadors of Peace (France / Switzerland), César Égido Serrano Foundation and Museum of the Word (Spain).

He resides in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentine Republic.

Poetry from Mykyta Ryzhykh

the faucet is clogged as if after the verse of death
like the winged word of a wingless crane
like the erection phase of an automatic gun

faucet is clogged but leaking
such a strange dream had a dungeon dispatcher 
while the subway cars crashed 
into each other at an inexplicable speed

what can god know about the dungeon 
if even his only son did not descend to us below 
the earth's surface

***
silent weapons shoot louder
a blind butterfly shines brighter
the wingless man flies further
the sky falls on everyone's head the same way

the birds of hell have come to gouge out the eyes with their claws
and I look at them without eyes without a mouth without wings
living corpse along the river flowing into the pipes of war

my late grandfather always told me about the importance of wings in childhood

my grandfather didn't tell me anything about guns and sky bridle in prayer in prayer

hello grandpa 
give me paradise apples 
in this hell of a grave
in this hell of a live

***
the cash register of the store is the door to narnia
near the rack with comics the cashier sleeps
behind the back of the cashier there is a cupboard from which kafka comes out leading to the path
the path leads to the forest with butterflies in the belly of nature
seminal lobes rush with atoms molecules fight in love
the chocolate hare jumps to the cotton candy stream
the stream by which we will die of thirst with sugar on our lips

***
body in a sheet of cold snow
dead man in sky-colored robe
newborn in naked silence
child in the name as if in religion
teen with dildo like god
adult with childhood in the auricles
old man with body reaching for the sky

***
heart torture chamber
dwarfs of minutes scatter
birds fly like jet planes
wait those are not birds they are jet planes

the fish plays suicide on the dream shore

the bird on the back of the survival stub screams:
hangman here hangman

***
niche industry of porn magazine
a lump with a deity inside the stomach
indigestion of sadness flowing through the veins
myopia of approaching my love
every time i try to touch you
every time i try
every time you leave
soulless beer can niche industry
niche industry of disappointment in people
used can of beer and emptiness on the pages of a porn magazine

***
neural network is called intelligence
I call myself a neural network
I'm just an ant, fill my chest with reflexes
I'm not human anymore I'm artificial intelligence
I'm artificial
i'm not smart
i am a walking reflex
I am a walking disappointment -

and then I woke up and went to clean up the shit after the cat

***
manna from heaven falls
from the sky directly into the mouth
another day of eating wealth
from which nothing will be born

(Reprint by BarBar)

***
cotton candy smothers us with sugar
a stream of blood and tears of the dead flows near the house

we have nothing to eat and drink

(Reprint by BarBar)


***
fire does not give rise to perspective
the birds don't sing
autumn does not come
autumn from now on without legs without god without man

(Reprint by BarBar)