Spring/Summer 2013

~ Visual Poetry ~ 

Bio:
Mark Burchard, a former Motion Picture Costumer, was inspired by the slaphappy moments in his 29^th film,
“The Silence of the Lambs,” to try his hand at writing comedy. He quickly moved on to include poetry, fiction,
and memoir. His work has appeared in THE BATTERED SUITCASE, WESTWARD QUARTERLY,
AUDIENCE MAGAZINE,LITTLE EPISODES, KEROUAC’S DOG, DO HOOKERS KISS?,
SKIVE MAGAZINE, and THE STRAY BRANCH.

Mark’s photographs were shown at the launch of Little Episodes in London, and can be seen on the covers
of The Stray Branch and WestWard Quarterly. They also appear within the pages of Audience Magazine,
The Battered Suitcase, and The Stray Branch.Mark’s filmography can be found at IMDB.com.

THE CIRCUS OF BROKEN DREAMS

WORDS and PHOTOS

BY

MARK BURCHARD

WHERE A LAUGH WILL MAKE YOU CRY

WHERE DELIGHTS FILL YOU WITH FRIGHT

WHERE A SMILE WILL MAKE YOU SCREAM

EVERYONE HAS A TICKET TO…

THE CIRCUS OF BROKEN DREAMS



#1. BEFORE THE FALL

BEFORE THE FACELESS AND UNKNOWN

#2. BALANCING THE RING

DECEIVED BY THE WHITE

#3. SLICE OF LIFE

CATCH OF DEATH

Spring/Summer 2013

~ Poetry ~
 

Bio:
Sy Roth is a retired school administrator from Mount Sinai, New York and has finally found the sounds of silence and the time to think whole thoughts. This has led him to find words and the ability to shape them. He has published in Visceral Uterus, Amulet, BlogNostics, Every Day Poets, Barefoot Review, Haggard and Halloo, Misfits Miscellany, Mad Swirl, Larks Fiction Magazine, Danse Macabre, Bitchin’ Kitch, Bong is Bard, Humber Pie, Poetry Super Highway, Penwood Review, Masque Publications, Foliate Oak, Miller’s Pond Poetry, Pyrokinection, The Artistic Muse, Word Riot, Samizdat Literary Journal and The Eloquent Atheist.

A Smoke Signal

Our Grand Canyon kitchen table between us--
smugness rested grandly on my side;
disfigured transformation opposite.
Echololic pish-posh tumbled from his droopy lips.

Aping him obscured dis-ease,
finding non-reciprocal response;
left eye, wishless Trevi Fountain silenced me,
while rippling tsunami lips shaped sounds.
“A cigar. I want cigar!” exploded ashore
lost in the sogginess of his lips.

“Smoke, no good!”
My tawpie response.

The Barcolounger, carpet-knife sliced,
tatters of a dismantled leaf blower,
silent car adorned with cherubic mouths--
all tattling.

Conceit obscured his smoke signals.
Cocked finger pressed against his head,
ignited supposition of his extinguishing light.
Only a cigar,
a smoke signal laved in a bucket of ice water,
a fading firefly,
a Christmas present unopened
remains frozen in memory.

Spring/Summer 2013

 
~ Poetry ~

Bio:
James Valvis lives in Issaquah, Washington. Publishing for over two decades, his work has recently appeared in 5 AM, Confrontation, Crab Creek Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Nimrod, Rattle, Red Fez, Southern Indiana Review, and is forthcoming in Arts & Letters, Atlanta Review, Catalonian Review, Crab Creek Review, Gargoyle, Hanging Loose, Los Angeles Review, Midwest Quarterly, New York Quarterly, Pank, South Carolina Review, and elsewhere. A book-length collection of his poems is due from Aortic Books.

Mental Disease"

Love is a grave mental disease."
--Plato

Here I was going along all these years,
thinking myself to be a good son, husband, father,
when all along I was just another nutcase.
I wish I had found this out sooner.
I might have killed my father and married my mother.
I might have whored my wife for profit.
I might have murdered my daughter in her infancy.
I might even have drunk hemlock.
I might have skipped these years of love
and traded my happiness for the sanity
that philosophers are renowned for enjoying.

Poetry by……

Amanda C. England
Anthony Ward
Charles Pitter
Clint Sabon
Danny P. Barbare
Dave Early
David Lawrence
David W. Rushing
Erik Berg
Erik Knutsen
Erik Potter
Erika Donald
Gretchen Meixner
J. Clayton L. Jones
James Valvis
James Welsh
Jay MacLeod
Jim Bronyaur
John Van Doren
Joseph Hart
Joseph M. Watts
Kiki Denis
Laura
Mandy Brown
Mark Perry
Martin McLernon
Mike Berger
Mike Perkins
Phil Loyd
Richard Hartwell
Richard J. O’Brien
Samuel Harris
Sara Bickley
Shontay Luna
SJ Fowler
Stephanie Hogue
Steven F. Klepetar
Sy Roth
Thomas Cannon
Thomas Dorsett
TJ Streett

Visual Poetry……

Mark Burchard

Fiction……

Dave Early
Eric Bonholtzer
Peter LaBerge
Richard Hartwell
Suvi Mahonen
William Akin

Flash Fiction……

Erica Gustafson

Artwork……

Aaron Kubacák
Jim Fuess
Shane Armstrong

Photography……

Leena Worthy
Mark Burchard
Peter LaBerge
Shane Armstrong

Cover art……

George Cotronis