Black Petals Issue #106 Winter, 2023

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The Thing in the Yard: Fiction by Vincent Vurchio
A Forest Green: Fiction by Logan Williams
Clown Safe: Fiction by Taylor Hagood
Home Delivery: Fiction by Jon Adcock
Judith and Bobby Save the World: Fiction by Stephen Tillman
Many Wee Undead: Fiction by Marco Etheridge
Meat Pie: Fiction by Anna Koltes
Mexican Coffee and Burgers: Fiction by Fred Zackel
Leaving: Fiction by Roy Dorman
The Ghost of the Perfect Hotdog: Fiction by Mark Miller
The Illustrated Woman: Fiction by Jen Myers
Thrice in One Sitting: Fiction by Justin Alcala
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning: Fiction by Gene Lass
AI Self-Mortification: Flash Fiction by Christopher Henckel
Correct Mistake: Flash Fiction by Eric Burbridge
A Moment of Inertia: Flash Fiction by Sean MacKendrick
Get Your Kicks on Route 666: Flash Fiction by M. L. Fortier
Let's Do Lunch: Flash Fiction by Hillary Lyon
"Three Wishes": Flash Fiction by Ronin Fox
Woodsman's Revenge: Flash Fiction by Jada Maze
To a Crow: Poem by Michael Keshigian
Estranged: Poem by Michael Keshigian
At the Terminal: Poem by Michael Keshigian
Angler's Nightmare: Poem by Michael Keshigian
Last Thirteen Steps: Poem by Kenneth Vincent Walker
Murderous Words: Poem by Kenneth Vincent Walker
My Childhood Snapshot: Poem by Kenneth Vincent Walker
With Vampires About: Poem by Kenneth Vincent Walker
The Zombies are Loose: Poem by C. Renee Kiser
Lil' Toe Dipper: Poem by C. Renee Kiser
Scattered Pieces: Poem by Andrew Graber

Michael Keshigian: Angler's Nightmare

ANGLERS NIGHTMARE

 

Michael Keshigian

 

 

He thinks the fish he landed,

the huge stripe basseye

sees a monsters face,

a demon with soft hands of fire

that boils its slick body

in the acid of air

with a tease from the hooks barb

that now knits the gasping jaw closed.

He imagines himself

such beautiful meat with a cruel demise,

no longer privy to the love and seclusion

of the black emptiness

from which it was snatched.

He places the rod upon the sand

and enters the ocean

until he can taste the salt

then asks the tide

to mend all wounds

on the motionless flesh

extinguished in his hands,

that it might again have life

and return to the bounty

of the cold world

in the dark coral depths

where this bass might then dream of him

in the bottomless sea,

of his hands and his sorrowful blue eyes.

Michael Keshigian is the author of 14 poetry collections. His most recent poems have appeared in The Comstock Review, Blue Pepper, California Quarterly, Misfit Magazine, and Tipton Poetry Journal. He has been published in numerous national and international journals and has appeared as feature writer in twenty publications with 7 Pushcart Prize and 3 Best Of The Net nominations.