VANTAGE POINT

by John Grey

In a narrow side street,

down below my second-floor apartment,

the routes by which

the bogeymen, demons,

grotesqueries and monstrosities

enter the inner city,

come together

in a tight space,

of muted light,

and no other foot traffic.

Tonight,

I expect, once more,

to take up my window vantage point,

watch, in both fascination and terror,

as they resume old feuds,

attack each other violently,

ripping and gouging,

biting and slashing,

in one great battle-fest

of torn skin, fur chunks,

flying eyeballs

and cannons of blood.

But, this night,

their usual growls

are merely murmurs.

Their lashing out

is no more than shoulder taps.

And those grim faces,

normally so intent

on menacing each other,

look upward.

One long scaly finger

emerges from the cloak

of some grizzle-faced ghoul.

It points directly at me.

John Grey is an Australian poet, U.S. resident, recently published in New World Writing, North Dakota Quarterly, and Tenth Muse. Latest books, Between Two Fires, Covert, and Memory Outside the Head, are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Birmingham Arts Journal, La Presa, and Shot Glass Journal.

KJ Hannah Greenberg is eclectic. She’s played oboe, participated in martial arts, learned basket weaving, and studied Middle Eastern dancing. What’s more, she’s a certified herbalist, and an AP College Board-authorized teacher of calculus. 

Her creative efforts have been nominated once for The Best of the Net in poetry, once for The Best of the Net in art, three times for the Pushcart Prize in Literature for poetry, once for the Pushcart Prize in Literature for fiction, once for the Million Writers Award for fiction, and once for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. To boot, Hannah’s had more than forty-five books published and has served as an editor for several literary journals.

Check out her latest short fiction collection, An Orbit of Chairs:

https://www.amazon.com/Orbit-Chairs-KJ-Hannah-Greenberg/dp/B0CWMMM73T

 Within its pages are two tales originally published at Yellow Mama: "Alive Another Day" and "Light Notes."

Channie's new art book, Life's Colors, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGCTHJ6Z, just launched (hit "read sample" button). It contains images originally published by Yellow Mama.