Caught On Tape

Funny, no one notices who is watching them. Overhead cameras, hidden inside rooftop owls, are wired to scare away drifting seagulls eating garbage bin leftovers. Genius: catching two birds with one shot—two kinds of thieves that never pay attention. 24/7: every move recorded, like clockwork. The boss reads the tape & sees you hustle into the crowded store, stopping first at the newsstand for a free newspaper; then, heading to the back where wild caught clams sit on crushed ice. It’s always a gamble, perched there like a fixture, until they switch off the lights for the night shift.

From Guest Contributor M.J. Iuppa

M.J.'s fourth poetry collection is This Thirst (Kelsay Books, 2017). For the past 31 years, she has lived on a small farm near the shores of Lake Ontario. Check out her blog: mjiuppa.blogspot.com for her musings on writing, sustainability & life’s stew.

That Holiday We All Supposedly Love

I push in my code: 437. The sound mocking me as I snatch the clipboard off of its peg—the check list of the unforgiving. My job today: revision in the main isle. I garb my lime-green box-cutter. Time to unpack the new merchandise. I fill the cart with cardboard boxes and scoot to the holiday shelves. I slit open the tape and a waft of rich-bitterness hits my nose. I pull out the advertisement holder that holds crimson candy boxes with cartoon dogs saying, “I ruff you! Give me a kiss!” Lurking within, little cones of so called yummy.

From Guest Contributor McKenzie A. Frey

The Messiah Complex

They had him taped to the floor. When they were holding him down and placing one piece of tape after the other, he'd smiled. Faintly so as not to be noticed, but a smile nevertheless. They didn't have enough tape to hold a person flat to the ground.

But when they'd left him there, try as he might, he couldn't move.

Now the water was drop-by-drop filling the small room. In a few more hours, the water would reach his nose and mouth and he'd eventually drown.

This would certainly be one of the worst ways he'd ever been killed.