American poets

9-4:30 by Ken Kakareka

NEW POETRY

(image c/o brewerdotcodotil)

i never
wanted
a 9-5
and haven’t
had one
but
the past
2 weeks
i agreed
to work
9-4:30.
i must
admit
there was
something nice
abt.
coming home
and
cracking open
an icy
red ale
on my
porch
while dusk
danced w/
dark
and the
wind
stirred my
soul.
the sky
steadied at
midnight blue
mixed w/
grey
like an
oil painting
smeared
together
on a canvas.
but
it wasn’t
enough to
commit
to this
schedule
as i’ve
already
committed to
a life
of nonconformity.
30 minutes
of glory
each day
isn’t
worth freedom.

Ken Kakareka is an American writer of works of fiction and nonfiction, such as BULLSHIT (Anxiety Press, 2024) and Summer of Irresponsibility (Alien Buddha Press, 2023). His novella PARIS IN ALL ITS GLORY is on its way with Anxiety Press. Ken’s work has appeared or is on its way in numerous rags including Gargoyle Magazine, The Disappointed Housewife, and Foofaraw. He has been nominated twice for a Best of the Net. A list of selected publications can be found at kenkakareka.com.

“Cold” by Holly Day

NEW POETRY

I walk down the street putting rocks into my pockets
because they’re pretty and I want them, I whistle at the birds fluttering overhead
talk to squirrels, tell everything how much it’s loved, I want everything to know
how much I love them, everything around me I don’t know why.

My husband tells me I don’t pay enough attention to him, and I
wallow in guilt as I make his sandwiches and cookies for work
my daughter shouts that having me for a mother is like being raised
by an angry wolf, I curl up inside, imagine my heart is a fireplace.

Out in the garden, I set the rocks from my walk in a neat pile
imagine how much the frogs hiding in the greenery will enjoy these rocks
tell the invisible frogs how I got these rocks just for them
fuss over the pile until everything is balanced in such a way that they will not fall.

My husband tells me I talk to the dog more than I talk to him, my daughter
tells me how happy she’ll be to move out in a couple of years
I close my eyes and imagine a house of silence and warmth
imagine that I can get these noisy things to love me as much as I love them.

Holly Day‘s writing has recently appeared in Analog SF, Talking River, and New Plains Review, and her published books include Music Theory for Dummies and Music Composition for Dummies. She currently teaches classes at The Loft Literary Center in Minnesota, Huge House in Washington, and the Indiana Writers Center.

“Optional Nourishment” by John Zedolik

NEW POETRY

Foolish to be consuming a huge juicy pear

at seventeen degrees of a mid-January day

while the wind whipped so froze my fingers

flushed with the fruit’s water

as the naked skin burned then numbed

in the stripping air young in this year

and even an iota more foolish to be toting

a bilingual book of Borges’ verse

exposed then receiving a drop of dripping

pulp upon the pages’ upright edge, whose stain

no flicker or rub of now warmed finger

could remove, so soaked into the fiber,

now an irregular umbra and penumbra

spreading almost cover to cover, an elongated

oval russet just drying to aged and average

brown, with my volume now maculate with evidence

of experience and error, yet not marring the print,

poetry in either tongue upon the pure white below

so the consequence minor, just a reminder

to consider and be humble at the juncture

of choices as the near future ripens

in atmospheres, measured seasons of promised

heat and the fair recompense of stinging cold.

John Zedolik is an adjunct English professor at Chatham University and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and has published poems in such journals as Abbey, The Bangalore Review (IND), Commonweal, FreeXpresSion (AUS), Orbis (UK), Paperplates (CAN), Poem, Poetry Salzburg Review (AUT), Transom, Writer’s Block (NED), and in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His full-length collections include Salient Points and Sharp Angles (WordTech Editions), When the Spirit Moves Me (Wipf & Stock), Mother Mourning, The Ramifications (Wipf & Stock), Lovers’ Progress (Wipf & Stock), and Triple Muse (Wipf & Stock). All these collections are available on Amazon.

“The Day of Her Burial” by Peter Mladinic

NEW POETRY

(image c/o ncronline)

A man at the diner
made the server cry.
The cops weren’t called.
He wasn’t even asked
to leave. The manager
came. The man’s yelling
rattled us diners, his loud
early morning swearing
at the end of the twentieth
century—five hours later,
an ice cold day,
my mother was buried—
is what I mostly recall.
He paid his bill
but didn’t tip
or invite anyone
to see his side.
Around his greasy hair
florescent light
signaled nothing’s
going right.

Peter Mladinic’s most recent book, The Whitestone Bridge, is available from Anxiety Press. An animal rights advocate, he lives in Hobbs, New Mexico, United States.

“Getting Home” by Corey Mesler

NEW POETRY

You walk the familiar steps
like a familiar. There
are cracks in the concrete
and ants in the cracks.
There’s a garden hose on
fire, its stream a dragon.
Above you gargoyles
gargle your name and
the porch shifts like an
ice floe. The key still
fits the lock and the
family that greets you,
half-heartedly it’s true,
resembles your real family.
Getting home is only the
first step. Step four or five
is you must become yourself.

COREY MESLER has been published in numerous anthologies and journals including Poetry, Gargoyle, Lunch Ticket, Five Points, Good Poems American Places, and New Stories from the South. He has published over 45 books of fiction and poetry.  With his wife he owns Burke’s Book Store (est. 1875) in Memphis.

“nature” by Ken Kakareka

nEW pOETRY

the one
thing
you should
never fight
is
nature.
if it
isn’t
meant
to be
why
will it
into
existence?
if it
is
meant
to be
why
deny?
it is
a battle
you will
lose
9 times
out of
10
and the
one time
that it
tricked you
into
believing
you won,
it will
haunt you
like the
carcass
of
a rotting pig.

***

Ken Kakareka has appeared numerous times at Fast Pop Lit.

His publication, Bullshit, is available at Amazon.

“Today’s Poetry Scene” by Brian Pilling

NEW POETRY

(photo c/o ctvnews.ca)

If you’re reading this poem, be sure to use the promo code: Percy
Shelley, which entitles you to a free lunch at the prestigious
Rainbow Room, high atop Rockefeller Center. Be sure to tip the
Russian-speaking maître d’ with a crisp green Andrew Jackson.
From your table hob-nob with the mega yacht captains who list
and lean to the right of you. If you haven’t yet, please note this
poem’s lack of slant and internal rhyme, the lack of line breaks,
and the small print—alcoholic beverages not included. But
foremost, please alert your server to any allergies, particularly to
the mixing of politics, religion, and art.

XXX

Brian Pilling has been published in The Main Street Rag, The Berkshire Review, Down In The Dirt, The Droplet Journal, Missive Magazine, and other literary journals. His chapbook The Poet’s Struggle is published by Bottlecap Press. Brian is a recent winner in The Cape Cod Times poetry contest. His previous appearance at Fast Pop Lit was here.

An Excerpt from “The Spector Wept” by James Lee

And now we hang the jestors wreath

When peace doth dwell throughout the land

And beast will eat from mortals hand

All oceans will merge into the sands

And death and life will merge as one

All black will darken the brightest sun

Blood in veins no longer run

The Spectors work is finally done

XXX

“The Spector Wept” and another poem by James Lee are COMING SOON— to New Pop Lit!




“House Concert” by James Croal Jackson

(THIRD OF THREE POEMS)

Anteater in an audience of

under-thirties. Metal microphone’s

demonic glint. Guitar on green

rack. Sad songs sing for

yellow-eyed grass to sway to.

Kill me, saccharine sugar. I

allowed myself to

undress my fur and

foreclaws.

Fire burns in the auburn

my species warned

against– a crowd of sadness

no nation’s a stranger to.


James Croal Jackson‘s first autumn 2023 poem for us was “Moment (October).”

His second autumn 2023 poem for us was “Fault.”