the end of everything

the days have buried us
quiet desperation’s creep
they’ve embraced the liturgy
of dubstep supremacy
the old reich is new again

dandelions spinning
we seek the mercy of sleep
zero-sum mentality
is their prime modality
none beyond the reich’s reach

it’s all over your face
silence only we sane can hear
the world’s too gone to scream

one weep away from hell
of the faithful’s making
we could try to break free
or sink into apathy
the reich prevails either way

a slavish love or else
führer gods above us all
the great ‘i am’ collectively
jackboots in perpetuity
embrace the reich on fire

it’s all over your face
silence only the sane can hear
we’re far too gone to scream

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2026

it’s complicated

woman in red
writing in red
of all her grievances
in over her head
‘cos she won’t give head
(well, that’s what he said)

she wants to really
to taste & get feely
but he hates her dearly
(well, that’s what she said)

mayhap neither ought to have wed
they’ve long since shat the marital bed
(well, that’s what the milkman said)

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2026

hagakure

the fox with the sword
he never uses his words
like a samurai
he prefers meditation
over a cherry petal

in silence he feels
a longing for the highlands
there’s no other goal
fox life is the only way
darting through the foggy fens

fleet of foot & tail
the gods can barely spot him
or trace his bearing

the fox looks yonder
at thunder on the mountain
the gods are angry
or maybe they are happy
the cherry petal flutters

ascension begins
climbing over nook & rock
fox ‘neath the lit skies
crystal droplets pelting down
the sword’s unblemished blade edge

fleet of foot & tail
the gods can fairly ponder
his vulpine essence

the fox at the peak
sees the gods in their true form
bow to each other
& then they sit side by side
for endless meditation

so he makes his choice
tender the fox lays his sword
down for the last time
soars into the lawless sky
turning into a petal

fleet of foot & tail
the gods can only look on
in silent envy

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024

mimic

it was just a dream
of guillermo del toro
with his eyes sewn closed
chortling on a bed
near a wall crawling with bugs
as jack black looked on
were they both brothers
from a different mother
was the real question

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025

GUEST POST // Twinkle, Twinkle by Whitecatgrove

O south star through the trees seen — where are
your kin on this flustered night? Hidden,
shy, sequestered in the sky above
the cooling clouds and their sparkling motes.

The half-empty moon has tipped his cup,
let the dregs fall upon the slumbered Earth.
We travel from darkness to darkness,
the light intermittent, inconstant,

afflicted with mighty tracts of void.
Your perturbations are a matter
of atmosphere: that is to say, Earth,
not that mighty glare on the other side

of time. We are phantoms: you of the past
long-dissipated, me of the future
yet unimagined, each tender view
occluded by ice crystals and chance —

by WHITECATGROVE
© All rights reserved 2026