pain and mistakes

   

© Rafael González                                                                              © Rafael González

I am recovering from this open surgery

I am recovering from this pain and mistakes

people make even at the cost of a life

to them we are just fucking numbers.

They almost got me by pushing insulin

when i never had a history of diabetics

and I started shouting when I realized.

Soon they stopped and got so angry that

they threw me out of the ICU.

I was lucky not to get into that

insulin-induced coma from which

many people could never return,

hanging midway like Artaud

during his last few months

between living and the dead.

-by Subhankar Das

                                                                                  
Subhankar das is a poet, bookstore owner, and publisher of Bangla experimental materials. He produced six short films that have been honored at international film festivals, and has translated the works of Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski in Bengali.

Art Courtesy: Rafael González

Rafael González is a visual and sound artist and he hails from Spain.

Beware! Mad Bulls are around.

Cancelmysubscriptions Return my submissions Hold your rejections Forget the directions Ignore my instructions T H I S I S T H E E N D

R O A D S

I remember times

When love and sex went hand-in-hand

When love and sax played counterpoint

When sax and sex blew crazy hot

I remember times

When Lady Jazz reached in my chest

And squeezed til joyous music played

Squeezed til music filled the void

I remember too

When love and hate both clashed and fought

When discord spun unwanted webs

The clash and crash of broken souls

Yet still all roads lead back to you

- by Bryn Fortey

First Night

It’s cold in here.

Is there a party outside?

I wonder what my sister’s doing?

It’s my first night.

My head is shaved and

I’m wearing orange overalls.

It’s dark.

Cold.

No sound.  

-by Gary Cummiskey

Photo Courtesy: David Balilty

Header Lines: Adrian Manning

Cartoon Art: Sub and Nil

~~~~

David Balilty is an Israeli artist with North African roots. He was born in Jerusalem in 1971 to a family of artists and musicians. In his most recent work, David has combined three mediums of  visual artistic experience for his abstract painting.

'Merry-Go-Round', Bryn Fortey's mixed fiction and poetry collection, was published by The Alchemy Press in 2014. His work has appeared in a variety of print and online sources over the years.

Adrian Manning writes from Leicester, England. He is also editor of Concrete Meat Press. He can be reached at www.concretemeatpress.co.uk.

Gary Cummiskey lives in Johannesburg. He is a poet, writer and publisher. He has had several chapbooks of poetry published over the past 20 years. His short fiction collection Off-ramp has been nominated for the Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award 2014.

Subhankar das is a poet, bookstore owner, and publisher of Bangla experimental materials. He produced six short films that have been honored at international film festivals, and has translated the works of Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski in Bengali.

Nilimesh Dutta lives in Kolkata. He writes very seldom, and writes in Bengali alternative little magazines.

A Love Story

                                     © Marko Davidović

I am madly in love with her

she is too

guess who? – he told me.

I do not want to guess

I do not want to visualize

let me know

when the poem is over

and what lingers

is the shiver of the hairs

of a wet pussy

fast asleep.

-by Subhankar Das

Subhankar das is a poet, bookstore owner, and publisher of Bangla experimental materials. He produced six short films that have been honored at international film festivals, and has translated the works of Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski in Bengali.

Painting Courtesy: Marko Davidović

Marko Davidović was born in belgrade, 1981, finished Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, 2005, in Graphic Design. Had 4 solo exhibitions and several group ones with some awards for graphic, graphic design, painting, drawing, own made font and calligraphy.

When I was a tree

       © Debdatta 'Riju' Mukherjee

an intellectual goose bit me on the nut

as I was trying to be a tree

trying to practice silence

I wish I had legs to run

like all those trees who are running away

from this city.

-by Subhankar Das

Subhankar das is a poet, bookstore owner, and publisher of Bangla experimental materials. He produced six short films that have been honored at international film festivals, and has translated the works of Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski in Bengali.

Photo courtesy: Debdatta 'Riju' Mukherjee

Debdatta 'Riju' Mukherjee lives in Kolkata and barely survives his insufferable job as an IT professional through poetry, photography and whiskey.