Rip-Off

By Bryan D. CookOrleans, Ontario, Canada It’s a taboo topic in polite society, but the ads don’t hold their punches when it comes to extolling the virtues of triple-ply, soft and scented toilet paper as tested by a family of teddy bears! My own testing shows that I have to fold many pieces to gain satisfaction; using many rolls and thus increasing the company’s profits.That is until I discover its high tensile-strength brand, 100 percent recycled with a promise to plant one tree per carton. No plastic wrapping and a fair price.I’m so happy with this product that I write…

To Whom It May Concern

By: Joe McKeon Available now at Red Moon Press -> To Whom It May Concern In To Whom It May Concern, Joe McKeon brings the haiku form to bear on social issues in a format that both informs and engages. This work exemplifies the role poetry, particularly short forms such as haiku, tanka, and senryu, and more specifically, the voice of the poet, has to play in the future of this planet and the wellbeing of its inhabitants. A compelling read from cover to cover. Richard GrahnFounder, The Abstractaphy Initiative

Solar Eclipse

By Debbie StrangeCanada Honourable Mention, 2024 H. Gene Murtha Memorial Senryū Contest

Walking Widdershins: An Ode to Joy

By Jenny Ward Angyal and Autumn Noelle Hall Walking Widdershins is comprised of 108 sets of collaborative tanka, a genre of Japanese short-form poetry more ancient than haiku. Historically, tanka were often exchanged between two poets as a kind of poetic conversation. The tanka conversations in this volume were written over the course of a single year and reflect the poets' rootedness in the places where they live, their love for the natural world, and their concern for the havoc the human species is wreaking upon it. In his 'Afterword,' David C. Rice, tanka poet & editor, asks "If the root…

Day Three in Siem Reap

By: Anna Cates, Wilmington, Ohioand Steve Van Allen, Cincinnati, Ohio A kilometer from Ankor Wat, at Ta Prohm, a Mahayana 12th century Buddhist temple.  Huge fig trees hang over the temple and spread across the ground. Moss grows green over the temple stones.I walk around the walls and note three young saffron-robed monks sitting around a campfire. They call out, "Sok subai," and wave. I wave back and walk on. When I get back to my driver, I ask what the phrase means.  He says, "Are you happy?" In decades since, I have often wondered, am I happy? The US…

You will Hear

By: ©Noris RobertsLecheria Municipio Urbaneja, Venezuela You will hear that the day is of pearlsand the night a percussion of stars,that the enemy's evil plays at misfortuneand sinks its claws into you when you least expect itYou will hear that the weapon of violenceis man's by nature,that the blue is just a line in the dawnYou will hear that there are voices that shriek with envyand pain is foreverYou will hear that suffering never findsthe safe conduct of justiceYou will hear that freedom is an inverted illusionthat sometimes leads you to doomOf kindly greens are the mountains covered,and of dazzling…

Aquarium Show

by R. Suresh babuChikmagalur, Karnataka, India aquarium showguppies for salein polythene bags

Faint Aurora

By Theresa A. CancroWilmington, Delaware, USA faint aurora  . . .a polar bear clambersonto the shrinking floe

MAID*

By Anna CatesWilmington, Ohio, USA . . . and she wilts like wet paper,her watercolor life bleeding pink across unfinished pages, the faintest pink, like the weakest sunset, where purple fails and pales, thinning, her voice, their voices, mortal voices, angel voices, demon voices, choices, choices, such agonizing choices . . .         fragrant        chrysanthemums . . .        prayer threads*Medical Assistance in Dying, Canada’s euthanasia program, legal since 2016 and expanded in 2021 to include those suffering without foreseeable death.  

Aspects of remembrance

By Florence HeyhoeCounty Down, Northern Ireland “Your father was a great man,” said Theadora,  “He used to stay at our house, he fished up Gortin way with my husband, they would talk for hours; they were good friends.”  slippery eelssizzling in the pancaught netted I know better. I have seen him cross the line at times teasing cats: tumbling into cruelty. He told me a story once of a Siamese that sprung at him from the top of a door, sinking in teeth and claws on landing. Serves him right. He beat the living daylights out of my brother, locked…

Omnipotent?

By Florence HeyhoeCounty Down, Northern Ireland He took the children in his arms . . . and blessed them I watch her marching into the middle of the road, wearing a white coat carrying her lollipop. The traffic parts like the Red Sea and the children cross over safely. Some walk hand in hand others skip. Most smile but a few are scowling on their way to school. There are other places where they take children, herded like cattle, delivered. Crossed over to sordid places, devoid of smiles. Here, there, everywhere, congregations of lecherous deviants drool and throw silver coins. …

Yulara – the town square

By Marilyn HumbertSyndey, NSW, Australia where the ghost gums gatheron-country women spread canvas squarescrushed ochre in small precise pilesred yellow orangewater to mixa white clay paste.all day, shade lessensand lengthenstheir brushes stroke and daubancient lore in dots and symbolstheir life, their dreamtime storieswhen bark canoes found this shorewhen feet wandered songline trailsbeside rivers, beneath stars.today bitumen and gravel divideswire and pickets corralthe ghosts of memory forests. Yulara is the village about 25kms from Uluru NT Australia, the place to stay when visiting Uluru.

Insurance?

By Steve Van Allen - Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, EarthAnna Cates - Wilmington, Ohio, USA Sugar-Pie is third in line at the pharmacy, six feet behind number two.  As she walks down the allergy aisle, she often wonders if her mother cursed her into diabetes. The pharmacy is busy; it always is.  Finally, "Can I help you?" "My name is Sugar-Pie.  I have one prescription to pick up. My birthday is August 14." "Here it is.  That will be $280." She feels faint and holds onto the counter.  "It was $40 last month!" "You are into your donut hole.  Spend another…

A Refuge’s Life

By Judit HollosBudapest, Hungary a refuge's life claimed by the sea her boat sinks beneath shards of starlight painted on the ocean waves Further Reading:Boat carrying 45 migrants and refugees capsizes off Yemen - BBC2023 Messenia migrant boat disaster - WikipediaCuban boat people - Wikipedia

Flag of the Weeds

By Margi AbrahamSydney, New South Wales, Australia Who will fly the flag?The flag of no homelandbut this Earth, this spherecircling a life-giving star. The unsymbolic, forgotten flagwith no country, no teamno cheering, no burningwith partisan meaning. The flag of the wavescrashing hope on every shore.The flag of sun-flecked mountainsreflecting beauty to the dawn. The quiet, sacred flagof peace and love enduring;breaking walls and shackles,unlocking doors with mercy. The flag of weary heartsthat search for signs already toldby weeds persisting through the cracks ─their breeze-tattered flowers.

A Toy Gun, with Real Bullets

By Robert WitmerTokyo, Japan new musica catatonic scalefor the poet’s requiem we are but cloudsof cosmic dustcollapsing in a dream apples sweetenin the shadowshungry birds dark secretsfrom a broken heartarctic waters warm waterinto wineresource wars the courthousein the pawnshop windowantique scales havesand halve notstaking the last peace vacuum sealedthe totalitarian mindsof mixed nuts fanning himselfwith a meat cleaverthe butcher sighs a thin ratover broken glassmoonlight in a slum raina gravedigger’s fingersflipping a coin gravestoneshuddle in spring grassa church bellwithout a tongue waves leapfrogthe ripping tideempty pews dream songsin night’s chamberpot our eyesglazed donutssweetening the whole each pledgea bullet whistlinghand over…