THE RUT

by Pepper Trail





They are coming out of the hills into town
Young bucks, spiked with peachfuzz velvet
Old bulls, necks thick and haunches heavy
Veterans of the autumn brawls of many years

They enact the understood rituals of threat
Send signals of dominance, await submission
This has worked among themselves forever
In the sparring, none got hurt, usually not

But now, nothing is enough for respect
Not the bellow, the big beard, the big arms
Not the waved flag, the holstered sidearm
Not even the AR-15 - nothing is enough

So there will be trouble - how not?
Baffled by the strangers in their way
Hearing only challenge in the voices raised
They lower their heavy heads and, blindly, charge


Pepper Trail is a poet and naturalist based in Ashland, Oregon. His poetry has appeared in Rattle, Atlanta Review, Spillway, Kyoto Journal, Cascadia Review, and other publications, and has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net awards. His collection Cascade-Siskiyou was a finalist for the 2016 Oregon Book Award in Poetry.

[muh-nip-yuh-ley-shuh n]

by Rémy Dambron



  oil pastel drawing manipulated in photoshop by u/monealiza


the art of manipulation
is not about making people
do what you want them to do
but rather getting them to
want to do what you want
them to do so if you tell a lie
that is big enough and tell it
often enough people will
believe it is true first identify
what it is those people like
then work backwards and
direct their desires toward the
goal you want to achieve then
empower yourself and people
who will help you stay in power
empathize with other abusers
and people whose actions
mirror or rival the severity of
yours embrace an opportunity
to profit from others welcome
an opportunity to disparage
anyone cherish an opportunity
to create chaos employ
psychological manipulation (a
form of social influence that
aims at advancing the goals of
the manipulator through the use
of underhanded indirect and
deceptive tactics) showcase
expert knowledge (you are an
expert if you insist that you are)
harness association bias (the
tendency to associate truth with
people you like rather than with
facts) engage in name calling
(anything goes) mockery (a must)
insults (the more outrageous the
better) imitation (of people who are
a threat to you) intimidation (of
people who are a threat to you)
threats (against people who might
expose you) bullying (people who
stand up to you) and gaslighting
(manipulative tactic used to gain
power and assert dominance over
a victim by forcing them to
question and challenge their own
sanity)

Rémy Dambron is an environmentalist and advocate for social justice. His works have appeared in Naturewriting.com, What Rough Beast, and Poets Reading the News. In a time when freedom of speech is being attacked by the very people sworn to protect it, he chooses to write poetry because he believes it is among the most democratic forms of literature, as it can be accessed by everyone and created by anyone.   

FASHIONABLE FOOTWEAR

by Jacqueline Jules

'Escolta de una gran senora en Barcelona' by Christoph Weiditz, Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Germany.

Demonstrating
dominance
over the working class,
the wealthy
once wore chopines,
platform heels so high,
canes or servants
were needed to walk
a cobbled 16th century street.

In every generation,
there are those
who never question
the crippling cost
of standing higher
off the ground,
as long as they feel
tall enough to totter
over someone else.


Jacqueline Jules is an elementary school librarian who left public education when the testing environment became ridiculous. As a reader, she devours every genre—biography, poetry, essays, science fiction, mystery, etc. As a writer, she doesn’t restrict herself to one genre, either.  Her work has been published in over 100 journals and she is the author of 30 books for young readers on a wide variety of topics. She is also the author of two poetry books, Field Trip to the Museum (Finishing Line Press) and Stronger Than Cleopatra (ELJ Publications).