[Untitled] - Zachary Valtschanoff
@zacharyval_writer

Shadow appears in the Faraday cage, a place beyond wires and watchers.

He stands behind a cinema machine, his face inhuman and grotesque, engulfed by the beam, and the rattle of the film reel.

A picture of repression and denial, perhaps, of potential squandered, whatever it is, he called me here to witness it.

But all I see is piercing light.

He steps towards me, gruesome and horrific.

Hold my hand, he says, but I refuse.

Bathe first in the Ganga.

I will perish, he pleads, but I insist.

She has washed a million Shadows, both mighty and meek, faces of men noble and vile,

She grew wise and unyielding by tempering them,

She will not refuse your evil.

Together we enter, in lockstep, together we plunge, as I know what he fears, for I fear it too.

I see him shift there, quiet and awake. He holds his head in his hands, touches it with reverence. A human head now, a human face.

We are ready to return, to play the film.

Life unfolds like a reel, frames shift, a world flickers on the wall.

He shows me, how safe it is to watch, how death-like.

And how terrified I am of life.

Zachary Valtschanoff is an author of poetry, prose poetry, and short story collections. He explores spiritual, philosophical, and existential themes. His works include “The Revelations Trilogy”, “Book Of Feast”, “Book Of Famine”,
and “Echoes Of Reason And Madness”.

Flower of Mercury - daniel lockeridge
@danlovepoetry

Mercurial maze between my throat
and might
straightens in graze
of nightshade.
Mercurial hesitation
finds the jasmine,
to walk
in the manner of plain,
with angel-violence
directed only at the stem.

At the stem I am mercury
awaiting Mercury.

The streak through silver lining
fury
scratches the surface of stepping
into one’s world accretion.

It starts with a nonexistent stem
between my throat and nebula;
it ends in petal-paths of essence-magma.

Daniel Lockeridge is a thirty-one-year-old Australian who has self-published a series of poetry consisting of three collections. He has poetry publications in Azarao Lit, Gasher Press, The Hemlock, Jacaranda Journal, Literary Revelations, Querencia Press, Wingless Dreamer and Reverie Magazine, among others. He shares his work on Instagram: @danlovepoetry.

Glass Tremor - Gordan Struić
@gstruic

Your name flickers
in the corner of my screen,
as if it’s trying
not to be seen.

I click,
but the page opens
to an empty room —
chair turned toward the wall,
curtains breathing
without wind.

In the corner,
a glass of water
ripples
at the sound of a cat.

Your face appears
for half a second,
eyes too wide,
mouth forming a word
I can’t pronounce.

Then nothing.
Only my reflection,
a mute orphan.

Gordan Struić is a Croatian lawyer, poet, writer, and musician whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous literary journals in Croatia and abroad, including 34th Parallel, Half Mystic, Stone Poetry Quarterly, Ink Sweat & Tears, Headlight Review, and Lana Turner. His poetry often explores the tension between intimacy and distance, blending precise imagery with surreal undertones.