Michael J. Galko

An ugly fish,
scraped metal scales,
blotched,
sucking at rocks
beneath the docks.

Or a skein of skin
sun-dried and bleached,
holding the thump 
of a wave– drum as verb
and reverb.

MICHAEL J. GALKO is a scientist and a poet who lives and works in Houston, TX. Michael is the owner, creator, and curator, of “Haiku House”, a residential art project less than a mile from downtown Houston. Michael was a Pushcart Prize nominee in 2019 and his poems and haiku have appeared in dozens of poetry and haiku-themed journals over the past few years, including Gargoyle, Gulf Coast, Paterson Literary Journal, Right Hand Pointing, Noon: Journal of the short poem, descant, Frogpond, and The Heron’s Nest.

Jacquelyn Shah

Jackal: opportunistic; frequents rubbish dumps
in pursuit of food; most active at dawn or dusk;
represented as wily, a trickster; makes unique 
sounds to deliver a message; used as literary
device to illustrate loneliness.

I am jacql 
crepuscular, incredulous
Had I been god there would be
no dust  lint  lust  loneliness
or seasons of treason

I am jacql at dawn
listing to the side to avoid 
a leaking of inner anger
No rage here
just hunger

Jacql, my cunning
and trickery trigger
a tracking of shimmering
words, to purloin
repurpose and twist  

As jacql at dusk
I close eyes to see not
what one more day has been 
in the Land of Missing 
Truth  

            Truth?
Opportunistic, I’m jacql 
I chew on residue left
after its slaughter, and  slow 
awful   bleeding   out
What I eat is acrid,
but then, I’m jacql

JACQUELYN “JACSUN” SHAH, iconoclast, pacifist: A.B., English (Rutgers U); M.A., English (Drew U); M.F.A., Ph.D., English literature/creative writing (U of Houston). Publications: chapbook—small fry; full-length book—What to Do with Red; poems in journals; Winner: Literal Latté’s 2018 Food Verse Contest. She loves what’s quirky and/or surrealistic in literature . . . and life.