Three Poems by Jonathan Butcher
Two Poems by Jay Passer
This, This is an African Moment by Amit Parmessur
Lighting a crooked cigarette in a bus overfed
with bushed Sunday people. The young conductor
too effeminate to bring back order, with the smoke
stirring silent angry looks.
Sipping some stale
Coca-Cola while being already drunk, with the
body swaying to every whim of a hungry bus driver.
Watching then the tragic landscape
for a bit of elusive escapism.
Feeling too hot, and a bit frustrated
with someone’s beautiful wife sitting just in front.
Trying to swear in a language not resembling the
mother tongue but that of a faraway father’s habit.
Falling asleep after a few drags on the cigarette
that rebels and falls down
after being left alone between stinking fingers
as good as dry ladyfingers without balls.
Being laughed at by neighbors,
by well-dressed and perfumed neighbors
with intentions darker than lethal black ants.
Waking up to have a second drag on a cigarette
that is missing. Starting to
swear heroically, searching for the cigarette that
has rolled into someone else’s temporary territory.
Aggravating the situation by releasing
from the pocket a handful of stolen,
old and bent coins onto the ground, with them rolling
everywhere like the rapid shells of paralyzed tortoises.
After Pancakes (Cause and Effect) by Rebeca Linney
Three Poems by James D Quinton
Two Poems by John Tustin
JOHN'S LIFE
The review are pouring
halfway through the season
of “John’s Life,”:
an unmitigated disaster!
A situation comedy more sad
than funny.
Poorly acted, sparsely staged,
the villain too evil to be believed,
the hero unlovable.
Like watching a car wreck
in slow motion.
The only bright spot
those two up-and-comers,
ages five and two.
Maybe they can spin off successfully,
giving viewers something beyond
a numb ass
and a bad memory.
HORSES ARE BEAUTIFUL
Horses are beautiful,
contentedly snorting, coats glimmering
as they eat their hay.
Cicadas are beautiful,
making chittering calls in the sycamores,
flicking lizard-like wings
for eagerly waiting lovers.
Sparrows are beautiful,
battling pigeons for crusts and turf,
losing and trying,
frenetically grabbing.
Pigs are beautiful.
Geckos are beautiful.
Suckerfish are beautiful.
People are not beautiful.
Followers
About Me
- Black-Listed Magazine
- Black-Listed Magazine is an online literary magazine. We publish on a rolling basis: weekly, daily, sometimes hourly. Send submissions here: blacklistedmagazine@hotmail.com