Mike Webster by Dan Provost

You would think
the NFL would initiate
a holiday for old
piano arms…

Pulling on a screen pass…

Taking out pursuit by
leading with his head.

Knocking down
potential tacklers

As Franco or Rocky
scooted into the endzone.

Triceps bulging as he went back
to the huddle…
Ready for some more
helmet to helmet
contact…

It is just unfortunate
that he was slowly
dying while doing his
job…

A scrambled noggin
back in the day was
seen as a badge
of courage
for lineman…

Could care less that
too many times, your
brain would slosh to the other
side of your skull…

During the millions
of collisions that
took place

during practice
and games…

But god damn it,
Bless Mike Webster…

He gave so much to
the Steelers dynasty…

Play after play, year
after year…

Not knowing
while in the process.

He gave the ultimate
sacrifice.

About Dan Provost: 

Dan Provost's poetry has been published throughout the small press for many years.  He is the author of nine books and lives in Berlin, New Hampshire with his wife, Laura--and their Bichon Frisce...Bella.

All Seasons Minus Winter by Rémy Boucher

Will see colors change and passions ignite.

Old favors and new desires bloom into a promise, of what most likely will never be.

The coin tossed into a empty well.
And a kiss that will linger for only a moment, is dead like the dreams within an old man's soul.

Winter knows the pain, that even a jaded soul as myself cannot dare to recall.

Rémy Boucher resides  in Québec and has been published in Scarlet Magazine, and The Shadowlands Magazine. He is currently working on his first poetry collection.

Generating Interest. By Ryan Quinn Flanagan

I may not get you rich,

but I know this guy who could get you pregnant,

he can’t stand protection, refuses to get a guard dog

and just leaves the door open,

hasn’t been robbed yet, but this one is definitely 

playing with house money;

I hear he shaves his legs though I’ve never seen it,

like the Great Wall of China,

I’m just generating interest, like the banks claim to do,

but I’m actually doing it;

if you want to sell the kid at some point, there’s a market for that too,

we could really drag things out, start a bidding war…

hell, if you’re willing to pop out ten to twelve puppies,

maybe I can make you rich after all, 

there’s money in those little goobers, I don’t know why,

but give me ten months and your banking information

and I could probably be skiing in Switzerland 

by the end of year.

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage.  His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly,The Rye Whiskey Review, Outlaw Poetry Network, Under The Bleachers, The Dope Fiend Daily and In Between Hangovers,

DMT. By John Patrick Robbins

Coming through the fog and being shot into space is the only way to describe it.
There is no pain or true sense of being .

No arguments,  it is the void of emptiness with a view of the cosmos I cannot describe .

It isn't life but it truly is the void beyond we fear known as death.

No Gods only a sense of existence that you are a spec on this plane .
There are particles and no people.

It was fifteen minutes of freedom I will dearly miss and experience only when my last breath is  expelled from my lungs.

The door is there but not all are ready to see.

I found peace far from everything I have ever known .

The bliss is in the understanding.

You will understand everything , the question is do you truly care to see behind the curtain.

Take all things into consideration and enjoy your trip .

John Patrick Robbins is the editor in chief of the Rye Whiskey Review , Under The Bleachers and
Drinkers Only .

His work has been published here at the Dopefiend Daily , Ariel Chart,  Punk Noir Magazine,  The San Pedro River Review , The San Antonio Review,  Oddball Magazine , As It Ought To Be Magazine and Piker Press.

He is also the author of Sex Drugs & Poetry  from Whiskey City Press , and Once Upon A Nervous Breakdown  from Soma Publishing .

His work is always unfiltered.