In our latest poem – Prom Night by Marge Simon – karma reveals that taking advantage of a disadvantaged person can be a very bad idea. Marge is a writer, poet and illustrator (the illustration here is by Marge) whose work has appeared in multiple venues and who has won several Stokers for her poetry collections. You can find Marge at http://www.margesimon.com 

​
Prom Night
by Marge Simon
 
She is lovely,
just turned fourteen
her loamshade hair
bound in baby’s breath
and wild roses,
 
secrets in her wide eyes
locked in dreams
but she cannot speak,
for she’s been mute
ever since the fire.
 
That’s what everyone thinks,
but it was just before the fire,
what set it off, that thing
her Uncle Robert did to her
while her cousins watched.
 
She remembers screaming,
until the room became white hot,
igniting the curtains,
the cries of her cousins,
and Uncle Robert’s shrieks,

​his hair and clothes aflame.
She remembers running
out the door and down the street,
the house behind her blazing,
a very long two years ago. 

After the prom that night,
her date took a detour,
thinking all along that he
would screw her, since
she could never tell.
 
That proved a very bad idea.

Heading into the realms of the surreal with these ​two new poems: Fatima & the Circus of Doctor Now by John W. Sexton and Pastoral with Were-Sheep by Zella Christensen.
​
​John W. Sexton lives in the Republic of Ireland. His fifth poetry collection The Offspring of the Moon is published by Salmon Poetry. His sixth collection Futures Pass will be published in the summer of 2018. In 2007 he was awarded a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry. Zella Christensen lives in Wisconsin and online at http://zellawrites.com Her poetry has appeared in publications including Star*Line, Strange Horizons, and New Myths.


Fatima & the Circus of Doctor Now
by John W. Sexton

With nine micro-meteor stigmata
barking Laika appeared at Fatima
starlight leaked from her matted fur
as revelations began to stir
 
the Virgin Mother in her veil of rain
poured out her conscience again and again
while at the circus of Doctor Now
an ancient woman swallowed a cow
 
a rope of shadow unwound from the wall
and tied down the day so night couldn’t fall
stars screamed unseen beyond the blue sky
and a question answered the question why
 
a bee stung a bear who kicked in a hive
then fell down dead then fell down alive
forwards stepped backwards and stop began
and wakefulness slept while lethargy ran


Pastoral with Were-Sheep
by Zella Christensen

Let's quit our jobs and move to the country
of pure-white sheep
who laze as long as the sun is out
and are so busy sleeping,
they hardly need tending.
 
They'll doze dreamlessly all day
till the moon hones hooves to daggers
and from molars fashions fangs
which tear apart the docile collie
as she tries to calm the flock.
 
Each night we'll sleep so well
from days spent in bucolic leisure
that we won't hear the ewes
baying at the door,
scratching the cottage walls.
 
When we live in the country
we'll be safe from drive-bys,
see, when we turn on the TV,
that we've left death in the city,
and fret over our families there.
 
One full moon, a ram will break
the window in our room with Pan-like horns,
and a lamb will sink her teeth
into our suntanned thighs.
Then we will live as sheep in the country.

Three fantastic new poems for you now. What more can I say except they are SO Grievous Angel!

About our contributors...
M.C. Childs’ speculative poetry appears in multiple publications. He is associate dean of architecture at the University of New Mexico specializing in urban design. 
Gretchen Tessmer is a writer/attorney based in the US/Canadian borderlands of Northern New York. Her poetry has most recently appeared in Star*Line, Abyss and Apex, Wild Musette and Strange Horizons.
​Yuan Changming currently edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include Best of the Best Canadian Poetry: 10th Anniversary Edition, BestNewPoemsOnline, and Threepenny Review.  


beseeching the kitchen gods
by M.C. Childs

push the dishwasher button 
for power scrub plus 
set the maytag dial 
to extra heavy load,  high water
self-clean the oven
and adjust the freezer 
to ice over Hades

slide the kitchen knife 
back into its wooden block


Teach Your Children Well
by Gretchen Tessmer

empty your pockets
of what? are these treasures?

nickels and dimes and
half-written letters
I’d rather—sea stones,
red leaves
and white feathers


Moving Sale
by Yuan Changming

A whole box of human hearts, each
Still beating fresh like skinned toads
 
Two rows of shiny skeletons of unknown gods
All fingers longer than legs, toes bigger than skulls
 
Three sets of knives, blades extremely blunt
With evil spirits and devilish impulses
 
Four giant alarm clocks, making thunderous noises
Waking up all dead from as many directions
 
Five bottles of wine filled with soaked souls
As colouful as the rainbow above the styx
 
Can I just have the reddist heart please?
Sure, it’s free