News: published in Minus 9 Online - Minus 9 Squared's cousin

The editor of the monthly online zine Minus 9 Squared has set up a new blog called Minus 9 Online. The aim of the new blog is to provide a continuous stream of work by writers and artists during the gap between publication of the monthly zines proper.

The blog is split into two categories - Words on a Page, for poetry, prose and short stories; and Pictures on a Screen, for all work of a visual nature.

Three of my poems currently feature in the Words on a Page category of the blog - Fantasies, All the Old Friends and Rankle; though, once the blog receives more submissions they'll disappear from the home page quite quickly!

Submitting work to the blog is a good way of getting exposed and could lead to being published in Minus 9 Squared itself, or even in other magazines as anybody could be reading/viewing the content. At the time of writing, the blog remains relatively bare, so help fill it up with a catalogue of work by getting the submissions in!

Rankle

Agitation of my wringing hands haunts
Those around me as my voice shrills higher.

Thickened glass drowns yells they wish to ignore
As the situation becomes dire.

Simplicities of intimacies lost
Still rankle as the world holds out on me.

Gaping mouths and tear-stained cheeks plead in vain
To deaf ears as I refuse to wait and see.

Taken flights and clouds of ash restrict my
Breath as my friends’ pleas begin to cower.

Cigarette stubs and empty cans litter
Life like indifference without power.

The long walk back to the start goes awry
As the path vanishes before my eyes.

Keep them open, keep on walking because
It is all so short, are their anguished cries.

Pleasantries and patience, all I extolled
As I dreamed of reaping returned rewards.

Yet here I sit empty-handed as I
Realise that we all fall on our own swords.