Time Is a Strange Thing

by Richard LeDue

The past hurts

linger like a bruise

we pretend we don't remember

how it happened,

and we assure anyone who asks

it all must have been

an accident,

and the present can be a half-healed scab

hidden under a sock,

but afraid of the future:

a battered, drunk fist

punching another wall

because blacking out

on Saturday nights shine a light

on all the wounds we've accepted.

Richard LeDue (he/him) lives in Norway House, Manitoba, Canada. He has been published both online and in print. He is the author of eleven books of poetry. His latest full-length book, Sometimes, It Isn't Much, was released from Alien Buddha Press in February 2024, and his latest chapbook, Mourning for the Petals, was self-published online for Kindle in November 2024 as an experiment.

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 Bleachers, and Rock and a Hard Place. She is the editor/art director of Yellow Mama. 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.