Essay from Brian Barbeito

Two friendly brown and white dogs outside on a cloudy day. Barren trees in the distance, snow on the ground.

I was late to begin leaving for walking, so I checked the time of sunset to make sure I wouldn’t get caught in darkness. It said 6:08 was when the sun set. I had enough time. I turned off the tarot card reader I was listening to and got my boots and such on. A local golf course allowed dog walkers through the winter months. Some people said it was to keep coyotes away and some had the owner as doing this because his mother used to walk the dogs there and it was all to keep part of her memory going. 

The dogs were happy and safe, and socialized well if a bit zealously sometimes, with the others they encountered. I took the left side which was less populated overall, and at that time for half the walk, that half of the golf course, there was nobody. It was one of those moments prolonged where the three of us were content, moving, together, and were where and how we were supposed to be. 

I looked out far and far across the lands and could see an old and sad building, something from maybe the 1970’s and even the most positive soul would be hard-pressed to find something sanguine about. I was glad I was in the next town, even if the people were a little on the snobbish side. It got really quiet, with no wind and I just paused sometimes and admired this remarkable quietude. There was a copse of trees standing above the long and wide white snow, both the ground and trees completely untouched by anything in the world. It reminded me of something. I couldn’t recall what. Then it hit me. It was all there like some old Carlos Castaneda book cover. That led me to thinking of Castaneda. His personal narrative probably hadn’t been true, according to my research, but his writing was beautiful and interesting, and did contain much wisdom. So, it was up to the reader to determine what they thought of it all finally. His immediate group of people didn’t end well. But in another way he had inspired many and perhaps still does. 

I arrived at a little series of small streams. The dogs, a Collie and a Husky, didn’t bother much and stayed close enough. They were both good swimmers but I wouldn’t want them to go too close in the winter months. I stood on some planks and stared at the black water which to the sides looked grey and in other places clear. I liked the sound and to see it travelling. I began to feel better and better. It had been a long cold snow-laden winter but finally there were little signs that it might end one day. 

There was a distant bell I kept hearing then, and also a black squirrel I saw running across the way in the openness before disappearing into a stand of trees. An elderly lady appeared before me with her dog. The three dogs met and played somewhat. 

‘Your dogs are beautiful,’ she mentioned. I told her thanks. ‘My dog is a rescue,’ she continued, ‘and I think they know when they are becoming a rescue.’

‘Good for you,’ I told her, ‘for giving him a home and walks. I might not be out here walking if not for mine, ’cause it easy to make any one excuse not to go out. So I rescue them and they rescue me.’

‘Exactly.’

Then the lady coughed and had a hard time stopping. ‘It’s a cold I’m fighting. But I’ve had it since December.’ That was a few months, I thought to myself, and something, life experience, common sense, maybe some intuition or the manner she coughed in, told me it was pneumonia. 

‘I hope you feel better soon.’

We looked around and the dogs kept playing. ‘I better get going,’ I said. And I glanced back in a bit and consciously sent her any light and good intentions that I could in order to help her with the pneumonia and in life. She seemed like such a good soul. Soon her and her dog disappeared into the part of the path that entered a group of old trees in the other direction. 

I kept on. There was a long stretch and I realized for some reason, alone with my own thoughts, that I had never seen the golf course without snow, in the spring or summer. I thought it must look kind, relaxing, even inspiring for its vibrant verdancy and calm plainness. There was a bit of ice to navigate going up the long hill to our truck, and I went slow and cautiously. The dogs had no trouble at all, full of agility and youth, prowess, and such, that they were. 

Some friendly people passed me and I said hello. It was interesting that they were setting out then because it was beginning to get dark. At the top the canines and I, got into my vehicle. Driving home I thought of the other side of outside, of home. There would be puzzles and books, nice people and the fire. The fire was electric and had no hearth stone, but it was a modern world and that’s just how it went sometimes. I still liked it. 

Inside, I wrote this, careful not to upset the puzzle pieces. Periodically I glanced up to see the darkening sky turn from blue to darker blue and then, black. It was night. It was a day’s end. It was Sunday as a Sunday should be, peaceful and without dilemma. 6:08 EST had come and passed. And that is what I saw, did, and thought, while that winter sun was going down again. 

——

Poetry from Taylor Dibbert

The Royalties

He’s looking through

The 2024 tax form

That documents 

The royalties

From his first book

It’s been a while 

Since the book 

Was released 

And he hasn’t

Thought about sales

In a long time

He made less than

Ten bucks

Last year

Obviously he’s 

An underground favorite

Poised for posthumous fame.

Taylor Dibbert is a poet in Washington, DC. He’s author of, most recently, “Takoma.”

Poetry from Daniel De Culla

Plastic monkey with a funny face holding a copy of a satirical collection of poetry supposedly by Donald Trump.

CHITA THE MONKEY SINGS TO TRUMP

O¡ my King; my trustworthy and conceitless Tarzan

Empty head, dumb ass

Who, since the first day of your mandate

Have not stopped shitting Decrees

That is why they call you “Decree-Shitter”.

Everyone praises you, as much as the wanking priest

Who does not stop solemnly jerking off

Or the whoremonger who, at the cry of female pussies

Has such a high regard for fucking them.

You defend the pros and cons

Of the Asses that govern the nations of the World

With the greatest determination and commitment.

You have surrounded yourself with empty heads like yours

As bad and repulsive as you

And a super donkey of childish treatment

Because he is a multimillionaire according to what they say

And defends the Nazi salute

Who cheers up the yawn of the wild human species

And shits pure and net cryptocurrencies

Who takes you to the toilet and makes you eat carrots

So that you keep your overgrown complexion and hair.

O¡ my King; Donkey commonly venerated

By satraps, genocidaires, rippers and tyrants.

It does not take much brain

To see your analogy with the crowing of the rooster

Or the Braying of the Donkey.

You have long ears like a donkey

That’s why people follow you and applaud

And the soul of Cutthroat and Dracula together

That’s why you help make the beds

For mothers, daughters and maidens

Without them knowing anything

Because they are in conversation

And, without wanting to, they open their legs to your kiss

Confident that you lead like a very proud horse

A formidable cock that they venerate

The headless henchmen, and evil from birth

That you have placed at your side and your government.

O! my King; tall, half blond – orange, party loving

With a quarter and a half of a wrist between your legs

False Ambassador of Peace

Deceiver of drooling fools

And stupid of cunts

The hair that you wear reached your navel

And, now, you have cut it giving it to her, as a votive offering

To the priestess presbyter.

O! my King; commonly psychopathic gulf

How tremendous you are!

Because you want rare lands

Like a God you are going to Ukraine

To reconquer and humiliate it

As if you were a dragon, or an Attila, King of the Huns

With the only desire to violate the maiden

Without letting her freely embrace that Europe that you hate

Or enter NATO like Matthew for his house.

Because you want water, you are going to Gaza

To build on thousands of corpses

Murdered and dead by a genocidal satrap

Tall buildings and beautiful beaches.

O¡ my King; Europe frightened takes you by the hand

Without knowing where you are taking it.

I do know, because I haven’t guessed it

But you yourself have told me

When you’re kissing my ass:

-That you will take Europe along roads, along paths

Trying to make a fire on top of the mountains

With bones and skulls

Of men and women that you will kill again

In a third war to come

Blessed by all beliefs.

”In time you will prove it worthily

My beloved Chita”.

Chita: -Humans: the Jungle has a new King!

My Tarzan. Lord of the Jungle.

-Daniel de Culla

Poetry from Duane Vorhees

HER BARBWIRE LIPS: Why is my I not the same I as our I your I their I et ceteri? Let’s meet any whensday where my we invites our them to break bread with their them (us!) and Is together are. Iless weness incorporates theynessthyness till allness is. But beware: I begets they if we neglects me (ourusness minus myness), so any part of(or)part from Iness may well martyrize my we :HER WATEFALL EYES

HAIKU IN SONNET

Blots advertise coming austerity.

Cross farmers and their inner flatterers

spring back into kinetic energy.

Skies are, after all, false benefactors.

(Crows)

“Take careful stock of your remaining fruit,

dead orchards are abandoned and condemned.

Worms sap tunnels through sturdy apple faults.”

Home seems familiar. We don’t understand.

(to)

The ambitions stretched beyond my quarters,

nests of desires planted over mountains.

Young dreams imagined crisp, boundless borders.

Birds of hope winged themselves across oceans.

(call)

For all that wishful repast was ancient

food that I thought only mine and recent.

Blots cross spring skies: Crows

take dead worms home to the nests.

Young birds call for food.

GESTALT

to/get/her

my singularity

we reformed

to/get/her

A POEM INDEBTED TO A SERMON BY LUTHER

Banner and anthem. Flag and slogan.

Tattoos and a uniform.

Your circumcision and your tzitzit.

A tonsure and crucifix.

All the princes impose their standards

and propagate their watchwords

by which to their followers they’re known

and to which lord they belong.

FLIGHT OF FANTASY

The name’s Duane, a recovering romantic.

And this sonnet’s microcosmically me: intelligent

to an extent, yet unutterably inelegant.

The twisted yogapoetry falls far shy of the tantric.

But the doomed, pure gooneybird still tries liftoff,

flopping/jerking incongruous across your Canada Shield,

this tropical spirit beating its blunt clumsy appeal

against your ever-stubborn massif.

Frantic wings pump and flutter.

Their antics, doubtless, amuse: as awkward

as the balance between golden orator

and the motley’s drooling stutter.

The question, then: Can nature’s clownbird conquer the runway

and slide into sky’s butterandgoney?

Artwork from Anna Keiko

Painting of a green vase full of white and pink and yellow flowers. Red and orange and light green background, petals falling on the black and yellow ground.
Blue stream flowing through grassy field with some yellow and red blooming trees.
Two organism-like figures, one looks like bone with an ear and a blue eye, and another that's brown paint swatches on a green background .
Tall human figure painted in black, yellow and blue face, profile view of a girl in yellow dress and long hair approaching him. Red sun, pink and blue and yellow background. Feet are a bit off the floor.
Photo of Anna Keiko in a brown jacket and dark jeans in a field of chest-high bushes with yellow flowers. City buildings and power lines in the background, cloudy day.

Anna Keiko (China)

Anna Keiko, a distinguished poetess and essayist from Shanghai, China, has made a profound impact on contemporary literature. A graduate of Shanghai East China University with a Bachelor’s degree in Law, she has achieved global recognition for her poetry, which has been translated into more than 30 languages and published in over 500 journals, magazines, and media outlets across 40 countries. Keiko is the founder and chief editor of the ACC Shanghai Huifeng Literature Association and serves as a Chinese representative and director of the International Cultural Foundation Ithaca. Her affiliations extend to Immagine & Poesia in Italy and the Canadian-Cuban Literary Union, reflecting her commitment to fostering cross-cultural literary exchanges.

Her poetic oeuvre spans six collections, including “Lonely in the Blood and Absurd Language”, showcasing her exploration of human emotions, environmental concerns, and existential themes. Her innovative style and evocative imagery have earned her numerous accolades, such as the 30th International Poetry Award in Italy and the World Peace Ambassador Certificate in 2024. Notably, she was the first Chinese recipient of the Cross-Cultural Exchange Medal for Significant Contribution to World Poetry, awarded in the United States in 2023.

Her works, including “Octopus Bones” and other acclaimed poems, have resonated with readers worldwide, garnering invitations to prominent international poetry festivals and conferences. Her dedication to the arts extends beyond poetry, encompassing prose, essays, lyrics, and drama, underscoring her versatility as a writer. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2020, Anna Keiko continues to break barriers, bringing Chinese literature to the global stage.