From Men on the Moon to Werewolves - Four New Poems

​Change of Heart
by Ken Poyner

The Yeti does not stalk.
It simply walks in,
Finds the sturdiest chair in the room,
And sits.

You eye him in ordered silence,
Your hands distantly occupy each other,
Your thoughts making no sudden moves:
The balance of you chilled into inaction.

No one knows what to do
During fantastic encounters such as this.
You think:  not even I knew
That was the sturdiest chair in the room.

* Norfolk (VA)-based Ken Poyner says "Of late, my SF poetry has been in Analog, Asimov’s, Star*Line, Abyss and Apex, and several other places, including mostly mainstream magazines/sites such as Menacing Hedge and The Adirondack Review". His most recent collection is Constant Animals, 42 unruly fictions available in paperback and ebook via www.kpoyner.com & www.amazon.com


Someone
by Carie Juettner

Someone left a cat whisker in my locker.
I once heard whiskers bring good luck,
but I wish it wasn’t the exact color 
of Snickers,
who ran away last week.

Someone left a flower petal in my locker.
At least I think it’s a flower petal--
it’s thin and pink and silky 
and smells a little like the potpourri
my big sister keeps in her underwear drawer.

Someone left a tooth in my locker,
which is weird because my little brother 
just lost his first tooth this weekend,
and the tooth fairy took it from underneath his pillow
but forgot to leave any money.

Someone left a picture of me in my locker.
I actually look really pretty in it
with the moonlight shining on my sleeping face,
but the angle suggests it was taken
from my closet.

Someone left a finger in my locker.
It’s wearing a ring that looks like my mom’s.
She left yesterday for a business trip.
And this morning when I thanked my dad 
for tucking me in last night, 
he said he didn’t know 
what I was talking about.

* Carie Juettner says "My poetry has been published in the Texas Poetry Calendar and the Texas Observer, among other places, and my horror short fiction has appeared in Hello Horror, Dark Moon Digest, Microhorror, and Growing Pains. I live in Austin, where I substitute teach, shelve library books, and write."


fantastic legend
by Herb Kauderer
 
three fourths of the people
in the office were not alive
during any moonwalk
 
they live on the super
computing benefits of what

is to them ancient history

* Herb Kauderer is an associate professor of English at Hilbert College. His tenth book of poetry – The Snowstorm of '14' (recently published by Written Image Press) – is the result of living at ground zero for two of the most epic snowstorms in the history of snowy Buffalo, NY.


Life with Larry
by John Grey

He's a handsome guy. she says.
Warm eyes. Kissable lips.
So what if he's a little crazy.
And he's gentle toward her.
She just has to make sure
she double-locks her door
whenever there's a full moon.
He's intelligent, worldly.
comfortably off.
It's not his fault he was
bitten by that hairy creature
on his last excursion
through eastern Europe.
He's just about perfect.
she concludes,
give or take the occasional
unseemly blood-lust.
One of these days.
wedding bells are sure to ring.
She can just seem them in
a house in the suburbs
with a white-picket fence
two cars, two kids.
and a dog.
Or two dogs.
depending on the time of month.

* John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in New Plains Review, Perceptions and Sanskrit with work upcoming in South Carolina Review, Gargoyle, Owen Wister Review and Louisiana Literature.