Number One in His Time By Wayne Russell

He was number one in his time,
king of the pub, the nightlife was
his.

The ladies would flock to his little
corner of the universe, ears and eyes
wide open; oh, the stories he could tell.

Stories of his time at sea, defending
“the free world” from all the atrocities
brewing; in the minds of “the evil.”  

But now? Now he’s a relic, long over
the hill, just basking in the warmth of
warm Spanish nights and sangria wine.

The lady that broke his heart in small
town Scotland, those big blue eyes, he
never forgot her.

That ship had long since sailed, and he
spins the yarns to any passerby that will
listen too his stories, of his glory days;

when he was strong as an ox, back when
he could stay out all night and report back
to his ship; working his fingers to the bone-

for his god and his country.

Wayne Russell is a poet, rhythm guitar player, singer, artist, photographer, and author of the poetry book Where Angels Fear via Guerilla Genius Press, it is currently available on Amazon, while his second book of poems, Splinter of the Moon will be released via Silver Bow Press in late January 2024.

Silly By Cherie Madigan

If I have a soulmate
he's drunk and
liquor-silly

sitting somewhere
baked as a cheesecake
and giggling like a little boy
in a dark corner bar.


One can only hope
he sobers up enough
to wander outside
into the fading sunlight


long enough for me
to stumble by giddy
and starving


on a quest
to fill empty bellies.
Maybe we fill
hungry hearts, too.

Cherie Madigan is a professor of English at Heartland Community College, in Normal, Illinois; she lives 45 minutes southwest of Normal...  Her work has been published in Dragon Poet Review, Labor: Studies in Working Class History, and Poetry Breakfast. 

A Letter Home By Jake St John

We approached 

the Russian 

sitting by 

an open flame 

along the edge 

of the wood 

we soon realized 

upon introduction

he was not Russian 

but an American 

sitting by a small fire 

in the Siberian wilderness 

he was smiling.

Jake St. John lives in the woods on the edge of the Salmon River. He is the author of several collections of poetry including Lips Leave Scars (with Jenn Knickerbocker, Whiskey City Press, 2023) Ring of Fog (Holy and Intoxicated Publications, 2022), Night Full of Diamonds (Whiskey City Press, 2021), and Lost City Highway (A Jabber Publication, 2019). He is the editor of Elephant and is considered an original member of the New London School of poetry. His poems have appeared in print and online journals around the world."

The Messenger’s Revenge by Leah Mueller

When my mother sent me to

the grocery store for cigarettes, 

she scribbled a permission

note for the cashier:

“Please sell a carton of 

Benson and Hedges 100s 

to my 12-year-old daughter. 

Thank you.”

I begged her to quit smoking, 

describing photos from 

my school’s science fair—

grisly, side-by-side 

comparisons of a healthy lung 

and a smoker’s lung. 

The healthy lung 

was lush and pink 

as a freshly picked carnation.

The smoker’s lung looked like 

someone had kicked it repeatedly

and left its battered carcass 

on the ground to decompose.

My protests made my mother

furious, and her rage

sparked a powerful hunger

for more cigarettes.

I learned to make the best 

of Mom’s addiction, stealing 

her change for my own fix:

Hostess cupcakes, brownies,

Ding-Dongs, and Twinkies—

stuffing my mouth like a squirrel,

chewing furtively, as the 

cheap white sugar coursed 

through my tainted veins.

Forgetting my mother’s

imminent demise, I concealed

crumpled, spent wrappers 

inside my coat pockets, then

shoved them inside the trash can

beneath the kitchen sink.

My unsuspecting parents 

sat together in the living room,

hacking phlegm into flimsy tissues.

I was a thief and a glutton, but 

no one could accuse me of littering. 

Leah Mueller's work appears in Rattle, NonBinary Review, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Citron Review, The Spectacle, New Flash Fiction Review, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, etc. She has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net. Leah's flash piece, "Land of Eternal Thirst" appears in the 2022 edition of Best Small Fictions. Her two newest books are "The Failure of Photography" (Garden Party Press, 2023) and "Widow's Fire" (Alien Buddha Press, 2023). Website: http://www.leahmueller.org.

hyperdontia By Dan Sicoli

after the discovery of the

broken basement window

she found me in the kitchen

she was not one to cook meals

unfortunately i left

my recipes at home

she made irish coffee knowing

i would welcome a cup

the plan was futile

and yet the dress she wore

was designed to turn heads

this was always her strength

watching her walk across the floor

proved to be distracting

i poured in way too much cream

her motions flirted with the past

as i dwelt in the eternal light

of her memory-making smile.

Dan Sicoli, of Niagara Falls, NY, might be found in a local gin mill banging on an old Gibson with a garage rock band. Between his editorial duties with Slipstream, he enjoys oven-drying his home-grown plum tomatoes and wine tasting.

Fifteen By Wayne F. Burke

I stepped up to the bar

with a borrowed draft card

from a neighbor

and showed the card

to the bartender who

glanced at it

then at me

as I stood on tiptoes

because I was supposed to be

five foot eleven but

only five foot seven

the bartender did not notice

or else not care

he served me a glass of beer

cost 15-cents

on a dollar I could get drunk

and did

whenever we went "over the line" from

Massachusetts, where I lived--and

the drinking age 21--into New York (18)

down dark winding drunken roads that

each year

claimed one of two of us

but never me, and

I wonder why:

because I was lucky; because

someone or thing looking-out for

me; because the stars & planets

aligned in my favor, or

what?

Wayne F. Burke's poetry and prose has been widely published in print and online (including in THE RYE WHISKEY REVIEW). He was nominated for a Pushcart by THE DOPE FIEND DAILY in 2022. He lives in Vermont (USA).

her son By Stephen House

there is a woman who is sometimes at my local café sitting outside with a glass of white wine and that’s not too unusual but i always notice the wine as it’s more of a morning coffee spot than a drinking place / the other day she sat at the outdoor table next to mine with her glass of wine and lit a cigarette and asked if the smoke bothered me and i politely said it did and if she could change seats in regard to the breeze direction then i would not get the full force of it in my face / she laughed and moved and started talking about christmas and then stopped and asked me to stay while she got another wine / and i thought it slightly odd as i don’t really know her but i told myself that maybe she needed to talk or share something / she asked if i wanted a wine and i declined as i was happy with my long black coffee / in a few minutes she came back with her wine and sat and looked into my eyes and slowly and quietly told me that eleven years ago her son had killed himself on christmas day and that for her christmas was a difficult and upsetting time / i gave my condolences and she talked for a while about the pain of losing her son and i listened and offered heartfelt words for her story genuinely moved me / and she finished her wine and lit another cigarette and thanked me for listening / and i said i would listen anytime if i was here and she needed to talk about her son / she smiled and said she appreciated that and touched my arm and left / i finished my coffee and left the café also    

Stephen House has won many awards and nominations as a poet, playwright, and actor. He’s had 20 plays produced with many published by Australian Plays Transform. He’s received several international literature residencies from The Australia Council for the Arts, and an Asialink India literature residency. He’s had two chapbooks published by ICOE Press Australia: ‘real and unreal’ poetry and ‘The Ajoona Guest House’ monologue. His poetry is published often. His next book drops soon. He performs his acclaimed monologues widely. Stephen’s play, ‘Johnny Chico’ ran in Spain for 4 years.