The coyote in the freezer
watches the sandwich maker.
The clock ticks.
Ice melts.
Outside,
cellphones gather.
On the corner,
feral children
bare their teeth,
clutch their readers
with grimy hands.
An old woman
asks for change.
Somewhere,
a book
goes unread.
A bus comes.
People shuffle on.
Down at the pier,
a man watches his daughter
drown in the crowd.
Matthew W. Schmeer's work has appeared in Panoply, Surreal Poetics, indicia, Slippery Elm, Cream City Review, Natural Bridge, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the University of Missouri at St. Louis and is a Professor of English at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas.
ISSUE THIRTEEN: Ye, Smelly Tsar
Ashanti Anderson
Goddam
Alan Elyshevitz
BLDG A, STE 4-22
Deidre O’Connor
Vision at a Dublin Airport Hotel
Claire Scott
The Morning After
Daniel Lasell
Above What's Under
Chey Davis
The Indictment
Hilary Sideris
Park
John Rodzvilla
Then Bring It Double (12 & 35)
Kathleen McClung
After the Election
Matthew W. Schmeer
Disturbing the Peace