“A person hears only what they understand.“
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
••• The Mad Gallery •••
“Intruders (2)” ~ Thomas Riesner
To see all Thomas’ wicked squiggles, as well as our other resident artists (50 and counting!) take a virtual stroll thru Mad Swirl’s Mad Gallery!
••• The Poetry Forum •••
This past week on Mad Swirl’s Poetry Forum… we blossomed trees, chalk moon to see; we profligates captured by aliens raptured; we laugh-liked a fella without an umbrella; we memories casted in a life unlasted; we skewered not our end for Jesus as our friend; we listed the charms in using his arms; we asked for some more of this life we adore. Amen and again, amen. ~ MH Clay
Blessing by Isaiah Vianese
Last week, we talked about longing.
“I’m not getting any younger,” I said,
“I want everything–
more and more and more of it.”
We send messages.
We make dinner plans.
Summer is coming.
Can you smell it on the breeze?
Give me the endless blossoming,
birthdays and dancing,
long walks among gravestones,
the perennial reincarnation,
love begetting love
again and again. Amen.
August 27, 2022
editors note: Yes! Amen. – mh clay
USE MY ARMS by Roger G. Singer
use my arms
to hold back
the wind
to open all
your doors
to carry
the umbrella
to bring you
breakfast
to carry your
coat
to bring in the
birthday cake
to hold your
favorite books
to collect the
shells we love
to dance
for no reason
to carry the
flowers you grow
August 26, 2022
editors note: To have is to hold. – mh clay
In The End by Randall Rogers
Hoist not
upon thine own petard
skepticism and cynicism
given Epicureanism
and Stoicism
Satanism and BDSM
lead straight to Jesus.
August 25, 2022
editors note: Believe your own boom or bondage be thine. – mh clay
Lifescan by David Dumouriez
Came in, with unusual
quietness (apparently);
played with cats on
the floor; wrote stories,
drew pictures; became a
small authority on that
game where you kick
that ball and the other
where you use that bat.
Read and wrote, and
read some more. Joined
the world. Tried people –
mixed results – went back
to cats. Wrote again.
Most likely will exit
quietly too, remembrance
to unlast past one generation.
August 24, 2022
editors note: Writing to undo one’s unlasting. – mh clay
Now by Sanjeev Sethi
In orneriness
of laughter
your snaggleteeth
without a bumbershoot
like most of me.
Happiness:
a kerchief of kites
flying nowhere.
August 23, 2022
editors note: Rain or shine, we’ll take what likes we can; no umbrella. – mh clay
The Rapture: Scene From the Life I Did Not Live by Marianne Szlyk
On the day after the aliens pull
the gun nuts, vote-suppressers, and judges
off our planet in a kind of rapture,
my friends and I tie red prayer flags to
thin trees beside my house. The sky is blank.
Spaceships no longer hover by mountains
no one climbs. Chimes sing in the wind. No trucks
drive past, slowing down to stare at us, old
women in long skirts like theirs, with uncut
hair like theirs. Our men watch Star Trek inside.
We can breathe now. I wonder what happened
to people we knew from work, from the coasts,
to those who thought they were going to God.
August 22, 2022
editors note: God knows where no god goes. – mh clay
2 Haiku: Spring & Twilight by Dee G Moray
A Spring Symphony
symphonic yellows
crash among the blossom trees
harmonising with spring
•••
Warm Twilight
chalk moon left behind –
swirling clouds of apricot
touching twilight’s face
August 21, 2022
editors note: Sight and sound fuse us with scene. – mh clay
••• Short Stories •••
If you gotta read-need then dig on this fantabulous tale, “RESTORED PORTMANTEAUS“ by Contributing Writer & Poet Marie Higgins!
Here’s what Short Story Editor Tyler Malone has to say about this pick’o the weekend:
Times change, on their own people don’t. It’s the times that change people all the time.
Here’s a clippet to get you goin’:
“Get Ready, Gotta Fly” by Tyler Malone
Sara
It was a fantabulous ski trip, until a snorm caused fragitation for travelers, including her. Put up in a motel, she arrived with EarPods on, podcast pulsing, ginormous swollen portmanteau challenging her every move.
That snarky pre-gate agent with the one-inch ridiculashes had doubted that the luggage latch would hold, she thought. Hah!
Ready to chillax, she plopped the suitcase down and instantly the clasp e-x-p-l-o-d-e-d! Shoes, skorts, socks, souvenirs, shampoo, jewelry, journals, jackets, jeggings, jumpers, jerseys, sprayed the room!
“Eff a duck!” Sara yelled and then yelled louder, “I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS RIGHT NOW!”
Plopping back on the bed, she registered that she was extremely hot, just as the podcast host said, “Tip number 8, have a cooling off period.”
As if on cue, she took off the new jacket, showy with a flashy lift ticket, then removed a scarf, sweater, the blouse over a camisole, necklaces, bracelets, rings, leg warmers, two pairs of socks, jeans over leggings, price tags still on, turned off Confessions of a Shopaholic and resolved out loud, with a chortle, “Tomorrow, I will have Momager buy a better portmanteau!”…
Scroll-stroll on over here to pick up where this clippet left off!
•••
If you’re looking for a gasper of a story, then check out “Death by Wool“ by Melissa Hickey!
Here’s what Short Story Editor Tyler Malone has to say about this pick’o the weekday:
Can’t do anything right or wrong on the best or worst days of our lives.
Here’s a few threads to weave this tale together:
“Forever Benched” by Tyler Malone
“Is this my birthday present,” Emily spat out. She tossed the lipstick on the kitchen table and watched it roll up against the scarf she was knitting. “You’re a fool, don’t you know makeup selection is woman’s work. For the love of God, you’re my husband, not a close girlfriend.”
I stared at her red cheeks and narrow eyes. She had to be joking. Woman’s work, if I’d been the one to say that, she would have called me sexist, besides she did like that lipstick brand. I’d made sure of it before making the purchase. Last week while she was out, I peeked in her cosmetic bag, pulled out a Revlon lipstick called Dusty Rose, and jotted down the name. I thought buying the same product was a safe bet, but with Emily, you never knew. For her birthday last year, I’d taken her out to an expensive restaurant. She claimed it was too expensive. The year before I took her to see a musical, she claimed the singing was too loud. Nothing I did pleased her. She was always complaining about something I’d done, but for the sake of keeping peace, I let her get away with it…
Scarf down the rest of this story here!
•••••••
The whole Mad Swirl of everything to come keeps on keepin’ on… now… now… NOW! Every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year, every decade, every every EVERY there is! Wanna join in the mad conversations going on in Mad Swirl’s World? Then stop by whenever the mood strikes! We’ll be here…
Hearin’ All Y’all,
Johnny O
Chief Editor
MH Clay
Poetry Editor
Tyler Malone
Short Story Editor
Madelyn Olson
Visual Editor