The Now Outside

by Harris Coverley

when you stand outside

on the vacant street

at 2 a.m.

the road clear

with not even a distant draught of traffic

the lights at the far crossroads

changing dumbly and obediently

for nobody

the wheezing rattle

of a neighbour’s ventilation system

the town hall bell tolling

just to prove to itself that it’s still there

you could mutter an oath

and no living sentience would hear you

you sponge all that in

and you finally realise

just how big eternity

is.

Along with previously in Yellow Mama, Harris Coverley has had verse published in California Quarterly, Star*Line, Spectral Realms, Scifaikuest, Polu Texni, Silver Blade, The Crank, Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, Altered Reality Magazine, Apocalypse Confidential, Tigershark, Corvus Review, View From Atlantis, and many others. He lives in Manchester, England.

Cindy Rosmus originally hails from the Ironbound section of Newark, NJ, once voted the “unfriendliest city on the planet.” She talks like Anybodys from West Side Story and everybody from Saturday Night Fever. Her noir/horror/bizarro stories have been published in the coolest places, such as Shotgun Honey; Megazine; Dark Dossier; The Rye Whiskey Review, Under the Boardwalk, and Rock and a Hard Place. She is the editor/art director of Yellow Mama and the art director of Black Petals. She’s published seven collections of short stories. Cindy is a Gemini, a Christian, and an animal rights advocate. She has recently branched out into photo illustration, under the guidance and mentoring of Ann Marie Rhiel.