Earp's Failure

by Steve Meador

Even if it were the only spot

west of the Mississippi

with an ice-cold well

of sarsaparilla, it would

not be deep enough reason

to start, come to, pass through

or inhabit Tombstone.

A barbequed hell-hole,

burped out of the ground

to be cruelly closer to the sun,

that couldn't crap enough silver

onto a gold hook

to make me nibble.

So, maybe the only way out,

for a guy already stuck there,

was to start a huge gun fight

at the corral, in hopes of getting

killed and saving a good horse.

Bio:Steve Meador has appeared in Loch Raven Review, Word Riot, Boston Literary Magazine, Foliate Oak, Umbrella, Autumn Sky & many others. His book ,Throwing Percy from the Cherry Tree won the D-N Publishing 2008 National Book Competition and was released in April. He is a real estate broker in Florida, where he lives with his wife and three sons.

Memories

by Sergio Ortiz

Feet jumping off boulders
into crystalline river waters
near ceremonial grounds.
Hieroglyphs of other feet
strolling on beaches full of mosquitoes.
Scared feet flying in the air
on dirty motel beds,
roasting like the roasting heart
of a goose thumbing rides
from Telegraph Street
to herethere Oakland.
Feet posing in the nude
for the muscular arms
of a shy blond biker
from South Carolina.
The feet of men staring
at their hands and ready to walk in
their wife's stockings,
burning like silk from the inside.

Bio: Sergio Ortiz grew up in Chicago, studied English literature at Inter-American University in San German, Puerto Rico, philosophy at World University. He was an ESL teacher most of his life but also worked with the elderly blind population as a Daily Living Skills Instructor for the El Paso Lighthouse for the Blind, and the Texas Lions Camp. He studied culinary art at The Restaurant School in Philadelphia and became a cheff.

His work has been published in Origami Condom, Poets Ink Review, POUI The Cave, Flutter, Silenced Press, Cause & Effect, The Cherry Blossom Review, Kritya, Ink Sweat & Tears. He is pending publication in "Ascent Aspirations," "Children, Churches and Daddies," "Cause & Effect," "Calliope Nerve," "Burst," "The Houston Literary Review," "Deep South, New Zealand," "Ranfurly, UK," "Vagabondage Press," and "Neon Literary Journal."

Song For A Tree

by Chris Crittenden

guardian of nests
bolstered by moss,

sinew of earth
painting sky,

whirring
like a cloud
of faint clarinets,

excited by arias,
wind's unstable puff,

swaying
as if lovers
hugged long to forge

a single
tempest-worthy trunk.

how many songbirds
plumb your vast
mezzanines,

each worthy of a
juliet?

how many moons
explore

like dim waterfalls
your labyrinthine breast?

Bio: Chris Crittendon says he's a strange fellow out in a remote area of Maine, obsessed with
poetry. A trickle of acceptances has been aided recently by: The Rose & Thorn, Slyvan Echo
and Off the Coast. Check out his guest blogs at The Rose &Thorn!(roseandthornreviews.blogspot.com July 4, 5, and 6)

This Rose

by Michael Johnson

simple

yet so

small

this

yellow rose

I place

beneath

your door.

-1973-

Bio:Michael Lee Johnson is a poet, and freelance writer, Itasca, Illinois author of The Lost American: From Exile to Freedom, http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-46091-7. He has also published two chapbooks of poetry. He has been published in USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Turkey, Fuji, Nigeria, Algeria, Africa, India, United Kingdom, Republic of Sierra Leone, Nepal, Thailand, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Poland, internet radio. He is also publisher and editor of four poetry, flash fiction sites--all presently open for submission: http://birdsbywindow.blogspot.com/
http://www.poetriclegacy.mysite.com/
http://atendertouch.blogspot.com/ http://wizardsofthewind.blogspot.com/ http://poetryman.mysite.com/ -Author's website