The debut full length from Damian Rucci

Jason Baldinger is from Pittsburgh and misses roaming the country writing poems. His newest book is A Threadbare Universe (Kung Fu Treachery Press). Forthcoming books include The Afterlife is a Hangover (Stubborn Mule Press) and A History of Backroads Misplaced (Kung Fu Treachery). His work has been published widely across print journals and online. You can hear him read his work on Bandcamp and on lp's by The Gotobeds and Theremonster. Damian Rucci is the author of 5 chapbook of poetry including Corrupt the Youth by Between Shadows Press. His work has been featured across the internet and in print. He is a founding member of the Nu Profits of Poetic Dischord, a beer guzzling bard, and probably banned from your local bar. Shawn Pavey is the author of Talking to Shadows (Main Street Rag Press, 2008), Nobody Steals the Towels From a Motel 6 (Spartan Press, 2015), and Survival Tips for the Pending Apocalypse (2019, Spartan Press) which was 1st runner up for the 2020 Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award. He co-founded The Main Street Rag Literary Journal and served as an Associate Editor. His infrequently updated blog is at www.shawnpavey.com. His books can be purchased from him signed and/or personalized at https: //shawn-pavey-poet.square.site/ or wherever one prefers to buy books online). Nathanael William Stolte hails from Buffalo, NY where he spent the pandemic taking shelter in his mother's basement convalescing from a summer heart attack. He did not spend that time wisely. His poems have appeared in various digital and print journals and magazines. He is the author of several chapbooks and Shoot the Alligators Closest to the Boat (Stubborn Mule, 2019) & Beggar's Songbook (Spartan Press, 2020). Stolte is a sober alcoholic, flower-punk, madcap poet. He replies to emails at nathanaelstolte@yahoo.com

Poets are the most vulnerable people you will ever meet. Whether they are publishing in a press or just in their journal, they are choosing to undertake a deeply revealing and raw portrayal of life as they experience it. When poems are available for everyone to read, they are most certainly open letters. Of course, Percy Shelly famously said poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. John F. Kennedy said if poetry and politics could learn to work together we would live in a better world. I believe that to be the case. Some of the most politically potent people I know are poets. They are willing to openly share pain, insight, and many times scathing critiques of our world. Poets have souls intact, unlike many political rhetoricians. Whenever I publish a poem I know the author is taking a great risk with themselves. More than with other styles. It's a risk they take for the sake of us all.

Damian and Ezhno live across the country from each other and both work dead end night jobs. Every morning, they stare at the same rising sun and contemplate martyrdom for causes they haven't found yet. They want to be pure. They want to feel at home. They want the past to quit kneeing them in the groin. They aren't so sure about a future.

A tribute to the greatest comedian of all-time, George Carlin