Poets Wear Prada: "Worm" by Hanoch Guy

Submission Policy

Submissions to THE BUG BOOK are now closed. However, we will continue to post a sampling of poems accepted for the anthology as we continue to work our way through the flood of last minute submissions.

Poetry (any form or style) and Micro or Flash Fictions wanted for an anthology on SMOKE. Not just the black clouds rising from the five-alarm fire next door, or the billowing plumes of smoke warning us of a forest fire, or the emissions from factory smoke stacks, apartment house incinerators, and crematoriums, smoke rings rise from cigarettes, smoke pours out of headshops, pipe shops & cigar stores--see that purple haze rising over the fields of poppies and marijuana we just planted--we've used it to communicate via smoke signals and skywriting, to cover our tracks and disappear with and without mirrors, combat the enemy on and off the battlefield, kill bugs, flavor food, cure illness, declare peace treaties, and fragrance our homes. Got the idea? Release it onto the page.

Guidelines: Submit up to three poems/micro fictions or two flash fictions at a time with a fascinating bio of 35 words or less, not just limited to publication credits, copy/pasted in the body of an e-mail (no attachments, please) to roxy533 at yahoo dot com & violetwrites at nyc dot rr dot com. We will also entertain up to six one-liners or 2 short stand up routines at time. Previously published work is OK as long as authors have retained the copyright, which will be returned to them after publication. Simultaneous submissions are encouraged. If your work is accepted elsewhere, and you still have obtained rights to republish, just let us know where and we'll be happy to acknowledge the other publication.

If you do not receive a response from us within a month of your submission considered it rejected and feel free to submit again. Due to the volume of submissions we cannot respond to each and every individual submission. Selection for the on-line edition are made on a ongoing basis as we receive your submissions. However, final selections for the print edition will made after the October 31st deadline. (In otherwords not everything that made the cut for the online edition will appear in print.) Please do not query. When in doubt, send the submission to roxy533 at yahoo dot com & violetwrites at nyc dot rr dot com.

Visit the online edition of SMOKE at:
http://thesmokingbook.blogspot.com/.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

"Worm" by Hanoch Guy

Worm

Baruch K.Swartz and Franz S. Kafka
having coffee and pleasant conversation.
They feel sleepy.
Wake up to find themselves upsidedown roaches.
They whine and chirp in desperation
for their sisters to feed them.
Nillie and Millie startled by the scratching
rush to the living room,
turn into wasps
sting their brothers with a vengeance.

Annoyed his nap ruined, bald, fat father K,
swats and hits the insects on the ceiling,
kills the wasps in mid-flight.
Sweeps them outside swearing.
The broom hits him hard as an elephant
steps on him, scatters gold teeth on the sidewalk
Turns him into a worm.

By Hanoch Guy

Hanoch Guy spent his childhood and youth in Israel surrounded by citrus trees and watermelon fields he had to contend with swarms of hornets,scorpions and and scary black garden snakes.

He is a bilingual poet in Hebrew and English, Hanoch is an Emeritus professor in Temple University. His poetry in English has appeared in Genre, Poetry Newsletter, Tracks , International Journal of Genocide studies and several times in Poetica where he won an award His poems were also published in Poetry Motel, Visions International and other magazines.

© Copyright 2007 Hanoch Guy