Prismatic Small Talk by David Lawrence

I put a sheet over your friskiness to listen to the purr
Of your cat-o-nine tails.
You are as black
As the crossing of bad luck
But you are really white
Because I am not a believer in multi-cultural
Fodder.
I hate cats.
I love pussy.
No. I love the spirit with which pussy is invested,
The woman inside the glands.
The conversational
Glue.
If we talk enough about the fur that surrounds
Your rainbow,
I will take to task the color of your prismatic small talk.

Speeding Down Interstate 86 South by Jack Henry

alone in a house
under skies
gray and unforgiving
surrounded by an empty desert
and a dead sea

there are no voices
here
no sounds that rise from a schoolyard covered in dead grass
there are no eyes
here
no witnesses arranged in a fashionable stance to bear truth upon those of us that remain
there are no screams
here
no cries of ecstasy or pain or confusion from tides unbearable on shores discontent

in the solace of night
a meth kitchen explodes
into life
and burns
unattended
no crowds gather to watch
and dance

in days like these
the ones we awake to without fresh skin
our feet touch
cold stone
hands reach out for a glass pipe and torch

and little else

(56) by Michael McAloran

Cut close to salve…entwined…gnarl of fingerless trees/ until final…

Atrophic heart of pale shadow…breath of shale…ice/ dead/ following…

Erupt/ head-sprung/ some silence/ echo/ some step/ silence/ step again…

Flush of strained blood…axial/ dislodged/ ablaze…stone breath/ cry out…

Follow again/ through which…strain/ heart dead or alive/ unknown…

Scattered/ butchered/ salve of night’s purpose(less)…kicking teeth from dust...

Tiny Piece of Night by David McLean

a tiny piece of night fell out of me
a child's broken toy

and rust was a slow ocean growing
skin shrinking back to the terrible touch

of memory and a frightened night
all the tiny pieces that were missing

all their listless allegations
and we were still alive

a tiny piece of night
a gigantic chunk of time

THE is back

I'm reopening The. Please send submissions again.

Hiatus

The and Blood on Paper are both on hiatus. Hope to return someday...

Every Day by Michael H. Brownstein

There are times in your life—
I don’t know when—

Beauty is skin deep
and ugliness is not a full color poster of vomit,
but the latest layer of your life.

There are days when it is impossible not to step on a crack.

Never cross under a ladder when someone is working above you.

A broken mirror needs to attach splinters to your hand.

A black cat may be a jaguar or a lynx,
the magik of night a trick of light.
To see a black panther in the wild…

Do you not know ugly layers of life build into scars
like the corrosive power of salt,
the obsession to spit on a broom,
the inability to let go of hands at a pole?

Feeling Down For No Reason At All by Ross Vassilev

the SS go
marching
through
my dreams.

I wake up
with acne
on the back
of my neck
and a huge
centipede
on the wall.
the phone
rings.

a woman
offers
me a new
credit card.

it's a tough
choice
between
her and
the Nazis.

Older by Stephen Jarrell Williams

I ache
between the shakes of excitement,
seeing what I want to see
under my cap of perception,

playing a harmonica,
dancing in a bad place
with a bad girl,

painting her gold
later in my apartment,

lost in her young years,
she does me and leaves.

Now angels floating over my bed,
sticking needles in my dimples.

I'm suddenly old,
wanting another day,
another night and spit between the sheets,

saying my prayers in this prick of a world.

Two by Ross Vassilev

humanity is a bitch

to survive in America
you gotta tiptoe
among nightshades
of nuclear war

dance round
mushroom clouds
of serial killers

escape from
the hangman’s noose
of poverty and the
chopping block of
the prison system.

when I was young
I wanted to save
humanity (like you’re
supposed to, I guess)

now I’m 32
and I just say

fuck it.

#

free medical advice

working the
graveyard shift
at the factory.

there was
a big blonde
about 19

the problem was
her face was
all covered in zits.

I wanted to tell
her there’s
a cure for that

but that got me
fired from one
job already

and I was out of
unemployment
benefits.

I admired her ass
for a while
then clocked in.

it’s people like me
who keep the
economy going.