The cry of a gull is beautiful / and the cry of a crow is ugly / but what I want to know / is whether they mean the same thing.

A dog with a soul, you’ve got that? You apes with heads of Socrates, false priests’ altar boys, retired professors of evil! I imagine cities so I can get lost in them. I meet other dogs with souls when I’m not lighting firecrackers in heads that are about to doze off. Blood-and-guts firecrackers. In the dark to see, you ass-scratchers! In the dark to see.

Jen Hawkins, retiring ed./cover art
(with apologies to Oskar Kokoschka)

BIG thanks, always, to:
Gateway Printers, Inc.
538 West Center Street
Pocatello, Idaho 83204;
&
to Margaret Aho and Michael Sowder, who KNOW EVERYTHING except maybe how much I really LOVE and OWE them.

All rights revert to authors upon publication.