The Doorman Cometh

Put it down to the
weather. I was heading 
out to the garden when 
some lines from John 
Donne opened the door 
for me. Death be not proud, 
though some have called
thee mighty & dreadful. 

Heavy shit for such a 
mundane activity, a holy 
sonnet where what I 
wanted was something 
more along the lines of
Whistle while you work.



Why I became a painter

Only if they
could also sing

were rhythm
guitarists part

of the bands
of the sixties.

 
A Crime of Podiatry

My big toe is
bitten off by an 
angry word. It
swallows it, then 
runs away. I

call the police who
take a statement &
then take me down
to the station to 
look at mugshots.

The words they 
show me are all 
single syllabled.
I tell them that 
none of those

could have done 
it —to get pur-
chase on my toe 
the word would 
have to have had  

at least two syl-
lables. The police 
now realize they 
might be dealing 
with a master 

criminal so send 
me off to the major
crimes squad. They
have dictionaries
to look through.
 
The sight of

seen things going 
past in the air. Not 
even. The sound 
of. Enough. Comp-
rehension is akin to 
pregnancy. Not. Either. 
No need to know 
the exactitudes of
shape, of surface 
texture. Half-guessed 
sufficient. Why try & 
grasp, catch hold of, be 
weighed down by?

 
A game of Pelota

The whiter the light
the higher the 
temperature. It was
the proper name
of the Sphinx & 
could not be expiated
even though its orbit 
lay within that of 
the earth. Gods crouched
before it like dogs as the 
war dragged on, during 
which time the embryo 
refused to grow. Finally
transferred to parchment
it was then cut
with a jagged edge
so that the two parts
could be matched later
for authenticity. So true 
to nature as to preclude
alternative treatment.

Order Up, It’s a Game

I know it’s a game, because I bought it.

I got it for my grandkids when they were young.

They loved it. We played it a lot. A review of the game

says it all: “Order Up puts the ‘short’ back in ‘short-order cook,’

but virtual cooking has never been more engaging”—think about it;

it’s a Monday, a work day, customers are pouring in

placing orders with little time to wait around,

maybe they’ve got a half-hour or so for lunch, it’s called

“fast food” for a reason. I once knew a social media

content creator who got fired because she took too

long a lunch break, she was “stealing” time on company time

they said so this is serious business, wolfing down a Big Mac

and fries is an eating skill essential for the average Jane or Joe.

In other words, this is nothing to play around with, except
in your spare time, on PlayStation. If you’re ever at

a Waffle House or other diner worth its name pay attention to

the cook who’s manning the grill, it’s a culinary operatic ballet:

Adam and Eve on a raft, 86 the Axle grease, BLT hold

the mayo, Blue plate special, Bowl of red, Tube steak deluxe,

synchrony in motion. There’s close to one million short order cooks

employed in the United States according to one recent estimate.

Most don’t have time to play games.

Afterword: “Trump visited a Bucks County McDonald’s to cook some french fries and work the drive-thru” the news headline says it all. In a post-truth world, deepfake, simulated, virtual has become an accepted stand in for real. If only Orwell was yet among us, he’d have a field day!

News source: Donald Trump works at McDonald’s in Feasterville, Bucks County https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/donald-trump-mcdonalds-bucks-pennsylvania-20241020.html

Additional news coverage: McDonald’s issues statement after Trump campaign stop at Pa. location

Howard Richard Debs is a recipient of the 2015 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Awards. His essays, fiction and poetry appear internationally; his art and photography will be found in select publications, including Rattle online as “Ekphrastic Challenge” artist and guest editor. His book Gallery: A Collection of Pictures and Words is a 2017 Best Book Awards and 2018 Book Excellence Awards recipient. His chapbook Political is the 2021 American Writing Awards winner in poetry. He is co-editor of New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust a winner of the 2023 International Book Awards. He is listed in the Poets & Writers Directory: https://www.pw.org/content/howard_debs

Libraries are very important in the life of all people. Libraries play a significant role in the live of all people who strive for knowledge. We can find all kinds of books in the libraries: novels, biographies, fictions, short stories, books for children and so on. In some libraries you can also get access to their electronic resources or the Internet. Libraries can be found in many places. Schools, universities and organizations often have one. Today there are libraries in nearly every city, town and village. The assortment of books in our school library is very diverse. There are many short stories and novels, reference books and textbooks, dictionaries and encyclopedias there.

Aymatova Aziza was born on February 24, 2009 in Almalyk, Tashkent region. She is a 9th grader. Until now, she has written dozens of poems. Hobbies include reading and drawing. Currently studying English and Turkish. Having studied languages in the Ibrat Academy application, she received English and Russian language course certificates and participated in many online tests and contests.

October Hurricane 

watching hurricane news
how I long to hear your updates 
from the valley of death

patiently waiting 
I check my inbox
a black void
 
I am reminded
you are without assistance
without food, without water
let alone internet services

in utter horror
your authorities leave you to die
blocking civilian intervention
threaten arrests 
to those trying to help

unnamed helicopters
hovering aid sites
causing fear and disruption
destroying supplies

watching news from the distance
I am wondering
why 

deep gratitude 
to fellow humans
groups of great brave people
continue to reach out
hearing your cries
they continue bringing supplies 

another day's end 
the sun will keep on rising 
silent prayers and thoughts of you
from the dark abyss
sparks of hope

Raquel Bianca Barbeito is a student of Animal Biology at The University of Guelph in Ontario,  Canada. She is also a painter and has done commissioned work for clients that want custom animal portrait creations.  She works on canvas with acrylic paints. 

Festa dei Morti:
l’uomo pingue s’accinge
a deflagrare

Feast of the Dead —
the rotund man sets about
exploding

*

a furia di arieggiare s’invola anche la salute

by dint of airing out health has flown away too

*

Dedicato ai plagiatori seriali

l’inferno attende
chi giunse in cima
con un copia e incolla

Dedicated to serial plagiarists

hell awaits
whoever got to the top
by copying and pasting

*

nel vicolo la vernice non copre la croce celtica

in the alley the paint doesn’t cover the Celtic cross

*

pellegrinaggio:
tutte le forme degli
stronzi di cane

pilgrimage —
all the shapes of
dog turds

*

vita in provincia:
nulla di più triste del
teppista anziano

life in the province —
nothing sadder than
the elderly delinquent

*

al quiz serale
dopo ogni vincita
migliora il look

on the evening quiz show
after each victory
a better outfit

*

in riverente
silenzio per Beethoven
tutte le piante

in reverential
silence for Beethoven
all the plants

Maurizio Brancaleoni lives near Rome, Italy.
He holds a master’s degree in Language and Translation Studies from Sapienza University. His haiku and senryu have appeared in Dadakuku, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Under The Bashō, Horror Senryu Journal, Cold Moon Journal, Scarlet Dragonfly, Memorie di una geisha, Rakuen, Haiku Corner, Pure Haiku, Five Fleas, Shadow Pond Journal, Haikuniverse, Asahi Haikuist, Plum Tree Tavern, Wales Haiku Journal, Kokako, Pan Haiku Review, The Wise Owl, Trash Panda, Haikukai, Password, Hedgerow, Fireflies’ Light and Modern Haiku. In 2023 one of his micropoems was nominated for a Touchstone Award, while a horror ku originally featured in the Halloween-themed issue of Scarlet Dragonfly was re-published in this year’s Dwarf Stars anthology. Maurizio manages “Leisure Spot”, a bilingual blog where he posts interviews, reviews and translations: https://leisurespotblog.blogspot.com/p/interviste-e-recensioni-interviews-and.html

(Older white man with a wide brim hat standing in a museum in front of a tan Egyptian statue. He’s got a gray sport coat and blue button down collared shirt).

“Le Grand Musée de Giza” opening of the world’s largest museum last October 16th 

by Federico Wardal 

——-

The cities of NYC and SF are intimately linked to major events on Egyptian antiquities. News such as the 2023 exhibition on Pharaoh Ramses at the SF De Young Museum curated by the celebrity of the most important exhibitions on ancient civilizations Hon. Renée Dreyfus, an exhibition desired by the legendary archaeologist Prof. Zahi Hawass, have been published in this magazine. 

In 1995 I was the protagonist of the theatrical show : “Garibaldi and Anita: peacemakers without frontiers” at the Cairo Opera House for the Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre and after the show I went to visit the famous set designer architect Hussein El-Ezabi in his villa at the pyramids where I met the Arab Global Star Mohammed Sobhi and we talked about the project of Le Grand Musée de Giza.

On 5 January 2002, then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak laid the foundation stone of the Grand Egyptian Museum.

In 2006, the 3,200 years old Statue of Ramesses II was relocated from Ramses Square in Cairo to the Grand Egyptian Museum site, near that Giza Plateau. It was moved to the atrium of the museum in January 2018 .

In late August 2008, the design team submitted over 5,000 drawings to the Egyptian Ministry of Culture. Following this, the construction tende was announced in October 2008. Earthmoving has begun to excavate the site for the building. Tendering was due in September 2009, with an estimated completion date of 2013.[15]

On 11 January 2012, a joint venture between Egypt’s Orascom Construction (OC) belongs to Sawiris brothers and the Belgian BESIX was awarded the contract for phase three of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM)

In January 2018, Besix and Orascom brought in and installed an 82-ton, 3,200-year-old statue of Ramses II in the Grand Egyptian Museum. It was the first artefact to be installed in the Museum, during construction, due to its size.

On 29 April 2018, a fire broke out near the entrance of the GEM but artifacts were not damaged and the cause of the fire was unknown.

In May 2018, the last of King Tutankhamun‘s chariots was moved to GEM.

In November 2018, the estimate for a full opening was pushed back to last quarter of 2020, according to Tarek Tawfik, GEM’s director.[20] In April 2020, the planned opening of the museum was pushed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In August 2020, two colossal statues discovered in the sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion by the IEASM were set up in the entrance hall of the GEM.

As of May 2024, the museum is scheduled to open “later this year” and Gihan Zaki was appointed head of the Grand Egyptian Museum.

As of 16 October, 2024 the Grand Hall, Grand Staircase, commercial area, 12 public galleries and the exterior gardens are open for tours, while the Tutankhamun gallery and Solar Boat Museum are not yet open to the public.

Soon the entire huge museum will be open to the public. 

Meanwhile, new archaeological discoveries are proceeding intensely under the care of Prof. Zahi Hawass, especially in the Luxor area that will contribute to the GEM while new large exhibitions on the Egypt of the Pharaohs are scheduled in the USA in 2025 with conferences by Prof. Zahi Hawass.