CIVILIZED DENTISTRY

by Caru Cadoc

We pay dentists to shave down our canines

nice and flush with the others

to help us dress up

and play humanists.

It's vain but honest.

They're such savage looking teeth.

And who needs canines anyway

when we have blow guns of chrome

Powered by powder more forcful than our little jaws

To project shards of metal designed to tear far deeper

Than our quaint little teeth.

Caru Cadoc is the lyricist for the Pseudosufis.  His work has appeared in Dead Flowers,The Boiler, MAKE, Jersey Devil Press, Word Catalyst and Storyglossia.

NEWTOWN EPITAPH

by Alan Catlin

A circle of flags
lowered to
half-mast;

someone has been
killing our
children.

Alan Catlin has published numerous chapbooks and full-length books of poetry and prose, the latest of which, from Pygmy Forest Press, is Alien Nation.