Without further adieu, here’s the first installment of what I’m calling MOVING TARGET! My new vlog from the side of the road.

This vlog features:

The Mop-Haired Boy by Raymond Luczak

Summer is a mop-haired toothy-grinned boy
who’s never had to work a single day in his life.
Lanky yet never gawky, he ambles by
all the girls with petals in their hair
oozing gasps of nectar in his wake.

Full of weed-induced giggles, he lazes about
and says, “Man, what’s happening,” a lot.
Nights of fireflies puncture the haze of his vision.
He inhales the poppy scents of romance,
but it’s not enough. So heroin it is.

He doesn’t understand why nobody wants him now.
He’s forgotten how one can stink after not bathing so long.
Forced to enter a methadone clinic, he cuts his hair.
Seeing his own pock-marked face in the mirror
for the first time is a terrible autumn.

The Touch of the Notch by Theresa Senato Edwards

She’d done absurd things as a child:
the counting of steps up stairways,
the repeating grip of the doorknob in her palm,
always going back to the knob,
going back to the corner of the door,
it had a notch in one of its grooves,
a smooth wooden pool of calm.

She’d rub a circle to the right,
outline the groove,
pray for resolve.

~
When she and her three year old
moved into their first apartment,
she decorated.
Inside the perfectly smooth door,
she gave her son a room
and looked for a hollow
space she could call home.
Ran her fingers down the wood
of every door,
closed eyes searching for indentation:
that invisible worry dump
to help with the nights
of her son’s temper tantrums,
the struggle to sleep by herself
before sleep became breaths of insomnia.

No notch in any door.
But she found a green dent
in beige primer on the hallway step.
In odd stillness, her fingers traced
the small spot
smooth like family,
quiet like a gift of understanding.

CHECK OUT ASSARACUS ISSUE 01 (featuring Raymond, not to mention his full-length collection, ROAD WORK AHEAD) AND VOICES THROUGH SKIN (by Theresa) – BOTH FROM SIBLING RIVALRY PRESS!