MOLOCH
by John Bennett

Bold-flavored coffee. Ringing bells. Sunday morning. Searching for clues. A tremor in the ground beneath me. A ripple in a far-off ocean. Shreds of respite in a slaughtered landscape. Parked on a hill with an overview. Fighting demons that have pseudo names cooked up in clinics I won't bow down to.

Life is suffering. Package it right and you've got a wellness industry. Put up a shingle and rake in the cash. The beat goes on.

The dog in the back seat is panting for no apparent reason. There's a half moon high in the heat-blistered morning sky. It took all I had in me to roll a cigarette and buy a cup of coffee to lug up here.

***

An idiot with a camera with a foot-long telescopic lens just pulled in beside me. There's 300 yards of empty road along this high ground, and this is where he chooses to park. He springs from his car and brings the camera up in front of his face. Pans and clicks, pans and clicks. Jumps back in the car and races off.

This, then, is the problem. The hydra-headed monster. The disjointed teemingness of it all. Flags flapping in the breeze, tanks rolling through the desert, Dr. Seuss on the silver screen, crash-bang and profane, the movie rights to magic sold to the highest bidder. Nothing is sacred. We butcher our children and fling them into Moloch's bone-crunching maw with such demented frenzy it won't even wash as sacrificial.

MONDAY MORNING IN CINCINNATI
by Scot Ehrhardt

On the corner
of Vine and Daniels
a man scrapes blood
like black-red paint chips
from the sidewalk.

Three blocks away,
a boy asks his mother
if the curtains in
the living room
will keep the
bullets out.

A CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT
by Michael L Newell

This is no tragic time.
This is melodrama.
Take a prating knave,

A tumbling bumbling clown,
A bully with a smile,
Bestow on them a stage.

Hire writers with no scruples.
Rent billboards - fill with pictures.
Stuff socks in every mouth

Which might dare to mutter.
String wire into homes -
Scold all who dare say no.

Remind them of their duty.
Remind them of their fealty.
Suggest that NO is treason.

Require all men, all women
To praise all their leaders.
The one who leads the leaders

Shall get a brand new name.
Ave Imperator.
Ave HE WHO GUIDES.