Heath Brougher is editor-in-chief of Concrete Mist Press and former poetry editor of Into the Void Magazine. His work has been published in both print and online. He has published twelve books, the most recent of which “Beware the Bourgeois Doomsday Fantasy” (Sandy Press, 2024).

Shadows, Inc 

I can’t wear properly wear
a fake smiley face.
I’m too real
to deign to phonyism.

If I keep up this “integrity” thing
the herd will eventually stop by
and tear me to pieces.

So it goes, I guess.

Afar 

The spiral-pulsing thought hit the lonesome highway of the Intellect.
The umber and ochre dogs faded to pieces of fiddlesticks.
The spiral-pulsing thought was beyond the Great Siberian Novel.
The spiral-pulsing thought drove right through the magnanimity of diamond doors.
The spiral-pulsing thought wore no blood and was a perfect parabola.
The spiral-pulsing thought flew into the comprehension of God.

Death of a Winter

Spring leaps forth causing April to unexpectedly
rescue the deadened Spirits from the dismal
cotton skies of prison-colored clouds
made of wounded wicker and withered wisteria.

Soon, plants and orioles awaken
and the cinereous skies will be re-bleached
in blue and boldly blonde
locks of life. Pistols will be removed
from the sides of foreheads
and put back into the hollowed-out bibles
from which they came. A tiny portion
of leverage and pressure plays
an enormous role in whether
a sapient and sensitive creature’s blood
continues to flow in its fleshy cage, or not.