A Perfect Animal

The opposite of anything is the thing itself—     Say, a face or a body.

Say, lilacs blooming from within the barrel of a gun.

As it pertains to the living, say then: each day is a crash course in survival.

Say, under extreme conditions,

a mother may kill and / or abandon her young.

As such, say it possible at every baptism, we arrive as low-hanging fruit.

That we are as strange & as meek as thy neighbor.    Say, especially, this means

what we can’t say otherwise:     say—  of guilt & love, only the smallest

child can explain the difference …

Say, then, you believe the sun burns as extremely as it hungers.  That violence figures

as a mercy which yields great returns on a body.

Say then: I am worthy.

Say, this time, I will be more than the slow infinity of my name in God’s mouth.

That should night come, I will be given

proper burial.    At the very least—    say:  one day,

a perfect animal will make a house from my bones.

 

 

Susan L. Leary

Susan L. Leary’s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in such places as Posit Journal, The Christian Century, Heavy Feather Review, Arcturus (Chicago Review of Books), and Into the Void. She is both a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, and her chapbook, This Girl, Your Disciple, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in August 2019. She teaches English Composition at the University of Miami (FL). Find her at www.susanlleary.com.

Mole Trap

The mole traps haven’t sprung. The wishbone handles of grey metal stick up from the ground like tuning forks. If I’d caught, the handles would be angled wide apart – V for victory, or fuck off, depending which way you look. I seldom trap one, but it makes me look busy.

Another Sunday, another Sunday roast. A ceremonial carve up. Do you take these legs and breasts as your lawfully stuffed lunch? Soon she’ll start banging the saucepans on the hob and peeling vegetables. The needle will start after breakfast. Could be anything. How long to cook the meat is our Sunday family favourite. Last week I did the cooking.

“It’s running with blood,” she said and didn’t touch it.

We used to yell but it skidded out of control. Rattled the kids. A bit of pushing that’s all, a slammed door, a smashed plate.

Yesterday she said, “Don’t roll your eyes at me. You’re beginning to look like your father.”

I said, “Control your temper. You’re beginning to sound like your mother.”

My father’s got his anxiety. Her mother’s dead.

To find the mole runs I prod the grass with a screwdriver then dig round holes into them with a trowel. I set the traps on a hair-trigger and lower them in. Lay on a lid of turf, plug the gaps with dead leaves to stop daylight or draughts. The moles sense both. Noses like radar dishes.

“Mum says lunch is ready. Can you come and cut the meat.” Our youngest enjoys running errands for his mother. I follow him as he runs back up the path from the toolshed.

Chicken’s on the table. The sharpening steel, carving knife and fork laid out like an amputation.

“This bird doesn’t smell right,” I say.

“In what way?” she says.

“Smells like shit. Literally like shit. Excrement.” I prize apart its back end and bring out a smear of brown on the knife.

“Smell that,” I say.

“I can smell it from here.” She takes the carving fork from my hand, spears the meat and dumps it in the bin.

“Just roast potatoes and veg today. The chicken is shit,” she says to the kids.

Back outside a trap’s been sprung. I pull the dead animal from the earth, its neck broken, a lick of blood oozes from its mouth. I take the mole to the fence and spike its corpse onto the barbed wire. By morning all trace of it will be gone.

Steven John

Steven John’s writing has appeared in Riggwelter, Spelk, Fictive Dream, Cabinet of Heed, EllipsisZine, Ghost Parachute and Best Microfiction 2019. He’s won Bath Ad Hoc Fiction a record six times and has been nominated for BIFFY 2019. He lives in The Cotswolds, England. Steven is Fiction & Special Features Editor at www.newflashfictionreview.com @StevenJohnWrite www.stevenjohnwriter.com

Sam Love

Japan’s Revenge

 

Like a flotilla revenging World War Two

an army of Japanese KonMari acolytes

are assaulting the cluttered disorder

rampant in our consumer laden homes

 

Mari Kondo, their high Netflix priestess,

advocates testing possessions for sparks of joy

and if there are no sparks

they’re off to Goodwill

 

For many, Mari Kondo is the antidote

to an out of control modern life

and by following the KonMari method

your home becomes a sanctuary of order

 

Yet like a time-consuming sponge

order nurtures conventional thinking

and studies show randomness

can spark creative ideas

 

This repackaged Shintoism

would have castrated the creativity

of Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein,

and Steve Jobs who loved their messy desks

 

Somewhere on my desk are studies

linking messiness to creativity

but with so many paper piles

I am not sure where they are

 

 

Barbie Turns 60

 

Barbie you razor thin blonde

who mutilated so many body images

who worshipped consumption

of sports cars, fashions and dream houses

who dallied on and off

with Ken but never married

 

Of course, it’s easy to understand

the lack of long-term attraction

between the model “it” couple

Very photogenic, but missing

some major private parts

 

Now Barbie you have to realize

your frozen good looks

can’t last forever and

it’s time to face the reality

of hitting the big six o

and let some wrinkles show

and consider a plastic butt tuck

 

Soon Mattel will have to replace

your suburban dream house

with Barbie’s Assisted Living

No dream kitchen

just communal dining

No spacious rooms

just one room and

God Forbid a roommate

 

So, Barbie your lack of eros

may not have stimulated Ken

but capitalism will honor you

as the queen of consumption

who stimulated the economy

 

Barbie is a registered trademark of Mattel Inc.

 

Sam Love

Sam Love lives in New Bern, N.C. which is as good a place as any to observe the drama that currently passes for Western Civilization. He has published and produced enough material in mass circulation media including Washingtonian and Smithsonian magazines that he has earned the right to be a footnote. After years of work with visual images and linear print he turned to poetry so people can make the movie in their head. His poems have been published in Kakalak, Slippery Elm, Voices on the Wind, The Lyricist, Flying South, Sleet and other publications. Eno published by Duke University has published six of his environmental poems and four of his poems have been featured on Poetry in Plain Sight posters throughout North Carolina. His latest poetry book, Cogitation, is available from Unsolicited Press. His illustrated children’s book My Little Plastic Bag is available in Spanish and English and has won numerous awards including a Nautilus Award. He is currently president of the New Bern local Poetry Group that organizes a monthly open mike.

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