TROJAN

by J. Bradley

With Friday’s school shooting in Connecticut reviving the national debate over gun control, some Louisville gun shops said Saturday they were already seeing an uptick in customers concerned that the shootings could lead to stricter gun regulations.
“There is an increase in calls and sales,” said Steve Hixenbaugh, owner of Oakwood Guns in Middletown. “Any time a tragedy like this happens, people do worry some type of legislation will go through.” --CourierJournal.com

In my country, we use bullets
as birth control.

Yet the parking lots of gun factories,
the sidewalks parallel to gun shops,
the stalls of shooting ranges remain
clean of poster board outrage.

The cycle whirs; we’ll always
keep the axle greased.

J. Bradley is a contributing writer for Specter Magazine and the Interviews Editor of PANK Magazine. He lives at iheartfailure.net.

IFFY FUTURE FORECAST

Poem by Charles Frederickson

Graphic by Saknarin Chinayote 

Topsy-turvy third planet from Sun
Upside-down silk lining turned inside-out
Biofuel technological solutions replacing geological
Asteroid mining commercial solar power

Oceans cannot absorb greenhouse emissions
Cataclysmic climate effects current adrift
Digital radar storm tracking surveillance
Arctic shrinkage meltdown icebergs overturned

Handle With Care survival issues
Over-consumption splurge space tourism colonies
Funny business as usual until
Endangered resource depletion runs out

Nanotech manipulating nothing’s the matter
On quantum atomic molecular scale
Biosphere demands exceeding global biocapacity
Supply chain profit margins unlinked

Systematic holistic challenges about-face turnabout
Equitable sustainable cosmos needs different
Set of values bankrupting nature
Contaminated eco-environment next generation’s legacy

Regenerative telemedicine cloning dinosaur egg
Autonomous robots emotionless artificial intelligence
Discovering fast-forward ways toward happier
More contented resilient co-existence habitation

 No Holds Bard Dr. Charles Frederickson and Mr. Saknarin Chinayote proudly present YouTube mini-movies @ YouTube – CharlesThai1 .

THE MAN WHO WANTED IT TOO MUCH

by David Spicer 

        From the age of five the man’s ambition was to be President of the most powerful nation on earth. This desire burned so intensely he acquired a swarthy, handsome demeanor that attracted beautiful women. He chose the loveliest and they worked together to fulfill his dream. He graduated from the top business school and felt that since government was the biggest business, he was uniquely qualified. His successes mounted and his family of five sons thrived. He craved leadership like a man desperate in a desert. He sweated desire and ambition. When he mounted his campaign for President after serving as savior of the Olympics and governor of a small state, the people did not trust him. They called him a liar and a fraud. His party renounced him and then slowly accepted him without passion. His opponent grinned and charmed people, his eloquent intellect a coin that dazzled. One pundit branded the man whose lifelong ambition dangled within reach a clumsy buffoon who wanted it too much. Voters agreed. On election day they chose the stunning intellectual by the slimmest margin, and the handsome businessman flew into the desert and disappeared.

Author of one collection, Everybody Has a Story, four chapbooks, and six unpublished poetry manuscripts, David Spicer has previously published in The New Verse News and also has work in Alcatraz, Nitty Gritty, Aura, Brown God, Hinchas de Poesia, Crack the Spine, Dirtflask, Spudgun, Mad Rush, Used Furniture Review, Fur-Lined Ghettos, Spudgun, Bop Dead City, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Resurgo, and elsewhere.