A man got up from bed, went to his bathroom, and looked at himself in the mirror. He saw people come in full circle and detach themselves. He saw a person use another’s authority for their own gain. He heard that its better that people should be described by their actions then their actions be described by those people. He learned he had a voice that could be felt by others. He realized that he isn’t the only siren that could be listened to. He met an enemy’s ally and made them a friend. He looked himself in the mirror and realized he was a monster. He began to listen to more sirens one ringing strongly while another hummed lower. The louder siren speaks of a place of fire where bad people live and good people visit. While the man speaks of an animal who doesn’t exist. He finds an angel who speaks of Milos and the man creates a sound of earth, but the louder siren speaks harder with a sound of retaliation, and after the loud siren creates a boom into the man’s ear, the man begins to see things differently not because of the boom but because of praise after. The man starts to see Messiahs being praised while saviors are being forgotten. The man starts to see people drown themselves on each other but no one flooding themselves on him. The man starts to hear people tell him his own flaws of being a monster. The man begins to be ignored by people who don’t want to hear his own voice. The man’s siren begins to not be listened to and feel worthless. The man’s enemy of his enemy becomes his enemy instead of his friend. The man starts to become nothing and his siren will soon wither and die. And along with the siren the man will die also, he begins to scream at himself in the mirror with what siren the man has left and his reflection shatters before he could realize that it doesn’t matter how many people love his voice but as long as one person holds the voice dear to themselves then no man or monster can be worthless. I then wake up and find myself broken, in the beginning of the circle, in “Ruin.”
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Print & Digital Issues
Featuring:
Issue 112, published October 2024, features works of poetry, flash fiction, short nonfiction, and visual art by Tobi Alfier, Sophia Carlisle, Jan Ball, Bordnick studio, Kit Carlson, Robert Carr, Sarah Das Gupta, Lynn D. Gilbert, GJ Gillespie, Steven Goldman, Yewon Han, Michael Hower, Kathryn Jordan, Raphael H Kosek, Aiden Kwon, Jennifer LeBlanc, Laurie Lindop, Alice Lowe, Pam F. Martin, Cecil Morris, Samantha Moya, J. Alan Nelson, Jennifer M Phillips, Brendan Praniewicz, Stevie Rosenfeld, Claire Scott, Rosanne Singer, Ignatius O'Neill Sridhar, John L. Stanizzi, Lucinda Trew, Nick Visconti, Matt Wanat, Ann Weil, and Stephen Curtis Wilson.