Fandango Release Date 20 August

Fandango by Walter Ruhlmann, Urtica
Release date: 20 August 2018
With a foreword by Steve Klepetar

"Love is illusion, and even lust is stripped of its romantic, erotic charm. Inside, hidden from the lover, lives the wolf, an embodiment of appetite, as dangerous as it is energetic and wild. These poems lay themselves bare, rejecting the false comforts of easy and joyous connection. In one of my favorite among these, “Congratulate,” the animal is a cat who hunts to feed her kittens: “She brings them back dead animals,/lovely huntress – she should be called Diane…” Like the goddess she is lovely and deadly, proud of the fleshy prizes she brings, left there “on the carpet for us all to consider,/her treasure, her trophy, a feather in her cap,/an awesome gift for the month-old furry balls.” Maternal instinct intertwines with violence, pride, and death, capped off by the adorable image of the almost newborn kittens. The emotions here come off as complex, ironic, informed by cynicism and humor as well as by horror."

From the foreword, Steve F. Steve Klepetar

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Protest by Gary Beck

Brokeback Mexican by Karen

Two young, middle-class, white women are on their way to a demonstration against impurities in lipstick.

Liz: “I can hear a commotion around the corner. That must be it.”

Sandy: “It’s very noisy. I wonder why they’re so excited.”

Liz: “Well its about time that someone got angry at the junk they put in our make-up.”

(They reach the corner and see a demonstration about immigration.)

Sandy: “Look, Liz. It’s about immigrants, not lipstick.”

Liz: “Immigrants are important. We need people to do our nails and stuff. As long

as they don’t move in next door to me.”

Sandy: “You don’t have to worry about that. They couldn’t afford the rent in your building.”

Liz: “That’s not the point. I wouldn’t mind a French or Swedish person next

door. Just not those Mexicans who talk so fast you can’t understand them.”

Sandy: That’s how you might sound to them.”

Liz: “Don’t be silly. I speak English.”

Sandy: “I see there’s no point in discussing it with you. Do you want to join this

demonstration?”

Liz: “Of course not! I’m no immigrant. Let’s go someplace nice for lunch.”

*****

Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director, and as an art dealer when he couldn’t make a living in theater. He has 14 published chapbooks. Dogs Don’t Send Flowers and other stories will be published by Wordcatcher Publishing. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines. He currently lives in New York City

Datura: Blooming

General submission guidelines for datura literary journal

Send five poems or artwork, three fiction, reviews, essays to mgversion2datura at gmail dot com. Previously published work OK as long as you give publishing background. Simultaneous submissions OK just make sure you tell me if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Write your full name and submission type in the header of your email. Name your attachment with latsname_firstname_title_datura. Make sure the title of the piece you send appears at the top of the page. No more than one poem per page.

Send all submissions in a txt, doc or odt file, attached to your mail. Don't copy/paste as formatting tends to get awkward, and hard to manage afterwards.

A short biography (very short -- essential only: where you are from (city, [state/province], country), a link to your blog/website, your latest publication...) is welcome but not necessary.

Read the former journal mgversion2>datura or the literary blogs Beakful or Urtica, and the books published through mgv2>publishing or Beakful and Urtica to get a sense of what I am used to publishing.

I don't retain any rights, your writing is your creation. You are welcome to cite the original publishing place in case you reprinted your work.

Submissions read year round. Response time may vary a lot. https://daturaliteraryjournal.blogspot.com/

Fluid Situation by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Decorative Concrete Kingdom Concrete Wood Flooring - Rapid City SD

There is nothing pretty
about the words that
matter

the ones
that climb under
your skin and grow
infected

spilling out this pusey
yellow fluid
in rotting weepy
bubbles

that you squeeze onto
the faux wood floor
your landlord is so
proud of.

*****

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage.  His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review and The New York Quarterly.

Depression by Erich von Neff

I take solace
In touching steel

Rubbing my hands
Against its smooth sides

Hearing it reverberate
When I rap it with my knuckles

I like the feel of I-beams
And steel pipes

Trombones for itchy fingers
Icons of my mind

from The Shadow of the Dog

*****

Erich von Neff was born in 1939 in Manila, the Philippines. Shortly before WW2 he returned with his family to the USA. He has had many jobs and uncountable poems and books published worldwide, especially in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and the USA https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ErichvonNeff

Ejaculer de Walter Ruhlmann

transversion de "Ejaculate" extrait du recueil Fandago à paraître en août 2018 chez Urtica.

Personne ne veut se salir,

s’engager dans ces batailles,

ces copulations horrifiques

tournées, jouées, notées, toute la journée.

Pourtant certains aiment regarder

les hommes nappés, aspergés,

enrobés – c’est amusant que le sexe soit parfois décrit

avec du vocabulaire culinaire.

Fourrés, ils gémissent tous, certains grimacent,

tous vendent leur fierté, leur amour propre.

Nul ne devrait juger leurs écarts

puisqu’ils nous permettent d’éjaculer.

*****

Walter Ruhlmann enseigne l’anglais et écrit depuis plus de 20 ans. Il édite et dirige la revue Datura et les blogs et éditions Beakful et Urtica. Son dernier recueil en français Civilisé est paru chez Urtica en 2017.

Ses blogs personnels: http://thenightorchid.blogspot.fr et http://nightorchidsselectedpoems.blogspot.fr