Sheri Vandermolen

Pollock’s geometry
splashes off its canvases,
onto the open-minded walls
of my otherwise quiet gallery —
creation perpetuating its relevance,
with dilating drops of India ink,
to fill once-blank spaces.

SHERI VANDERMOLEN has served, for fifteen years, as editor in chief of Time Being Books, based in St. Louis, Missouri. Her projects have included overseeing compilation of The Complete Poems of Louis Daniel Brodsky and managing four collected-works editions. She has also facilitated the publication of dozens of individual poetry and short-fiction volumes. She graduated summa cum laude in 1990 and relocated to India in 2008. Her verse has been published in various international literary journals and anthologies, including Contemporary Literary Review India, Earthen Lamp Journal, Muse India, Papercuts, Taj Mahal Review, Veils, Halos and Shackles, and Verse-Virtual.

Sara Krueger

I float the back channels in the swampish heat,
past the leavings of one town and then another,
keeping my peepers peeled and my mask tugged tight.

Every few miles I shore up and scan the trees,
fingering the blade I rescued
from Gummy’s hog farm.
My work boots sink into the muck
as I root around for something squirrely.

The search is so much harder now after the change.
But, Gummy needs the meat — —
bloody and almost beating.
Her book tells us these things.

She’d got no teeth left in her head,
Gummy didn’t,
when I found her.
Her eyes had gone too from many months of basement living.
She keeps me at this life,
Gummy does,
and she makes me fancy
that it ain’t just the metal men out there
rustling along in the dark.

SARA KRUEGER received her B.A. in Film from Columbia College Chicago. She has directed several short films. Her written work has appeared in Menacing Hedge and Devilfish Review. She has attended artist residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Ragdale Foundation. Sara lives in Chicago with her husband Garrett, her cat Lando, and her dog Luna.

B.A. Varghese

The Whopper box, like a tomb,
had a picture of one neat green lettuce lying
on one slice of succulent red tomato, probably
grown in the sea side of Sicily, resting
upon browned meat enclosed in a bun of wheat
and sesame seeds. I opened the box, took a hold
of my palatable poison, and bit down. I didn’t chew
much and I swallowed chunks whole. Any
other way of going would have been too messy
or at least require more on my part. This
was slow and painless. This would take years.
Methodical. Mouth-watering.
After the stake fries and Coke, that went
down like embalming fluid, I smiled
and just waited and waited for the end.

B. A. VARGHESE graduated from Polytechnic University (New York) in 1993 and has been working in the Information Technology field ever since. Inspired to explore his artistic side, he has earned a B.A. in English from the University of South Florida and is currently in the process of working toward an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. His works have appeared in Cleaver Magazine, Apalachee Review, Rose Red Review, and other literary journals. (www.bavarghese.com)