vicissitude

It’s a fickle thing, time. It dawdles when you wish it would get a move on and rushes past when you’re trying to race it. I often wonder if biology is related to time. No-one ever seems to be as old as they would like to be; children want to be adults, adults want to be children. On the rare occasions people feel they are just the right age that satisfaction seems to be short-lived.

the Red Queen
pauses for breath
he won’t stand beating

 

David J Kelly

vicissitude

Occupational Hazard

My coworkers have already abandoned their cubicles, headed to the company canteen for lunch. In an attempt to get a leg up on the week’s crunch, I tap away at my terminal. Out of nowhere, my boss stands just inside the partition. He flashes a crooked smile, licks his lips. I try not to notice where his hand lingers, look back at my screen, cold stare, say nothing. He mutters something about a managers’ meeting, turns on his heel, lumbers off in a huff.

a rock
and a hard place
no office party

 

Theresa A. Cancro

Occupational Hazard

(unitled)

 

After my mother and sister died from a disease the wind blew in from ghost towns, the same white dress they both wore, in different eras, stood in the closet, as if a life of its own. I remember my sister wearing that dress while holding a prayer book, her mouth open, reciting a psalm with the congregation or pretending she was. At night, I imagined the dress freeing itself from hangers, hovering over me. I could feel it breathe. I could hear it whisper. When I worked up the courage to open my eyes and light a candle, I sat next to the old Singer machine and stuck stitching pins into my legs, just to see if I were really awake.

an unclaimed child
walks solemnly into church each Sunday
mouth open to receive The Word

 

Kyle Hemmings

(unitled)

crackin’ jack

no more surprise prize, a ring, anything, in the cracker jack box, the original junk food. no, you’ll have to settle for a code on your phone that gives you a lame game to chew on.

sailor jack
and his dog bingo
POP UP

 

Theresa A. Cancro

crackin’ jack

1956

1956 saw my birth
and the devil’s rope gain ground.

I have yet learnt to fly
or succeed
where the movie star failed
to jump the wire
by motorcycle
in the Great Escape movie.

I did not leave a country by force only umbilically in a Chelsea hospital.

You left your motherland that year,
as I left my own,
and we returned together decades later to rust in old blood.

the scent of colour
in every crime scene
becoming chimera
Alan Summers
Ekphrastic haibun inspired by:
‘1956’ by Magdolna Ban
1988, oil on canvas,
Bridgeman Art Library, Private Collection
https://silverandexact.com/2010/09/27/1956-magdolna-ban-1988/
devil’s rope:
One company (in Wales U.K.) has made, and sold, in excess of one million rolls of barbed wire a.k.a. devil’s rope – enough to go 5 times around the world.
1956

Out of Sync

I was never really into boy bands. I mean, sure, I belted the lyrics to every Backstreet Boys song that came on the radio. And, okay, I had an N*SYNC poster on my bedroom wall. And I might have dreamt about running off to Hawaii with Taylor Hanson and those long, luxurious locks of perfect blond hair… But I swear, I was never really into boy bands.

climate change
the ice shifts
in my water glass

 

Elizabeth Alford

Out of Sync