The man sat smugly on the bus, holding a framed picture on his knees. He decided to hang it in the hall so that visitors would admire his good taste. He stood on a chair. His young daughter handed him a crooked nail.
–   What the hell am I supposed to do with that?
His wife handed him a knife with a heavy steel handle.
–   What’s this? Christ, I’m living with two idiots!
He tapped the nail into the plaster, then hung the picture on the nail, biting the knife between his teeth.
–    And now for the coup de grass (sic).
He hit the nail hard and the whole lot came crashing down.
–    Jesus Christ, it’s destroyed!
He grabbed his overcoat from the hall stand and left the house. His wife and daughter allowed themselves a little titter. However, they knew there would be hell to pay when he came home from the pub, ugly drunk.

splinter of glass
in the lino –
drawing blood

Gerry McDonnell

Janey was a stableman’s daughter. Swished her tresses from her face.
Lizzy, Alexa and Fanny her sisters in paint were clearly seen. And she was a good woman too.

stitches
chain and whipped back
lazy daisy and feather

Janey was a stableman’s daughter. Swished her dresses round her waist.
Proserpine, Astarte Syriaca, Mnemosthene, she embodied the three of them wrapped in green. And she was a good woman too.

chain and whipped back
stitches
lazy daisy and feather

Janey was a stableman’s daughter. Swished her silks for a flower in place .
Lucrece, Hyppolita, Helen of Troy, all from her needle sewn on a screen.
And she was a good woman too.

lazy daisy and feather
chain and whipped back
stitches

Janey was a stableman’s daughter. Swished her affections without a trace.
Lizzy, Alexa and Fanny her sisters in paint were clearly seen .
And she was a good woman too.

chain and whipped back
stitches
lazy daisy and feather

…

NB: Jane Morris (nee Burden)was a model for many pre-raphaelite painters

Diana Webb

lots of marks
for identifying pieces
thermal cat

‘Raw onion’ the watchword he whispers significantly, and ‘French vinaigrette’ the darkness solemnly replies. A shot rings out through the stillness. ‘You’ve been sadly misinformed my friend.’ He fingers a half-week’s stubble. ‘The dressing was last week. Today it’s pickled cabbage on the menu.’ The crumpled heap of soot clutches his spurting belly, whimpering feebly in the dust. ‘Probiotic, if putrid,’ he continues amiably, returning the flintlock to its holster and receding back into the shadows. ‘Green goddess might have sufficed,’ it spits his last words, wooden teeth grinding deafeningly, guts straining against the ball interloping about their property. Quietly, it expires.

reading roadkill
universal standard for
diagnostic codes

Unaware of these petty intrigues, a stoic trollop three stories above, yawning, dumps her guzunder onto the low kingdom and all its august inhabitants in dreary indifference. He finds, even in death, the stench is repellant, offends his delicate nostrils. Vicissitudes.

Jerome Berglund

this is what the rich do who they call peers associates the planners of their parties that collect most vulnerable prey on and leaves decapitated threats ammunition on critics’ front stoops magazines refuse to print a harsh word having full possession of facts on hand police investigating die prematurely this is what capital buys when you let it accumulate unchecked what are we going to do

seafood buffet
a rare
reflexivity

Jerome Berglund

A crow perched in a tree. When they are silent. They know. Why return to the boat. Once you go. The first tree they see. Cut like a goat. Just. To be.

Robert Witmer

Before I had finished explaining, the guy in the dream woke up.

He walked away from the tree, so that when it fell, no one could hear, and so, perhaps, silence fell.

An audio file deleted by mistake. The lecture never attended. Ideas misunderstood.

A red sun bedded by the sea. Bare feet in wet sand. Seagulls fast asleep. On one leg. Sacred to Aphrodite and the White Goddess of the Moon. Voluptuous and gullible.

As far as I know.

Robert Witmer

Ashlyn
Ashton
Braxton
Brooklyn
Caitlyn with a c
Creston
Cresslyn
Eastton with two t’s
Eeston with two e’s
Evelyn
Jazlyn
Kaitlyn with a k
K8lyn with an 8
Kingston
Lynton
Packston with a k—sorry—with a ck
Pakston with just a k
Paxton with an x
Qaitlyn with a q
Quinnlyn
Quenton
Quinton
Remington with an i
Rem‽ngton with an exclamation point—sorry—an interrobang
Rem!ngton with an exclamation point
Southeaston
Tonlyn
Tracelyn
Trenton with just an o
Trentön with an o with an umlaut
Westlyn
Weston
Zayton with a just a z
and double-z Zzayton

mock orange blossoms
keeping up
the Joneses

Joshua St. Claire