Issue Five

Mental Health Day

by Howie Good

The pill I take in the morning
is supposed to help.
You better? everyone asks.
I’ll never be Teacher of the Year
if that’s what they mean.
I lose track of which door is which.
Alcohol intensifies the effect.
It says so right on the bottle.
Pornomaniac. A word I looked up once,
but haven’t had to use.

Delphi's Sonnet

by Kenneth P. Gurney

In the beginning, Delphi was not there.

Millennia passed before Parnassus

caused her to spring forth like so much water

and let her run down the slopes.

In the middle, Delphi walks among us

wears the faces of our choosing

and does her best to answer our questions

as honestly as possible.

In the end, she will cross the river,

the same as the rest of us

who passed along the gift of time 

as if it is a cool drink of water for the parched,

and she will take her place among the fourteen oars

that draw the boat to that farthest shore.

Dark

by John Tustin

Dark.

Dank dark black void nil blank

nothing blind.

My voice echoes

in my head.

Something drips from

the walls.

Something skitters silent

on the floor and walls

and I am naked

barefoot.

I stumble.

The somethings crawl

over my hands

and a trapdoor drops me.

I fall

fall

in the dark

dark.

Trembling

blind

ears clogged.

I scream,

no sound comes,

the somethings crawl

into my mouth.

Terrified.

Dark.

Black.

Undone.

Alone.

I scream into

the void

and know

that I am

nothing.