Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday

 

always the schaden never the freude

 

this is kali yuga
no time for the merely glum
leaning against my own hard edges
wedging the door to keep out monsters

 

listen for it: clown car on a downhill slide
the seething caldera bloops a welcome
the schadenfreude should be delightful
for those who are still here

 

the contradictions tighten
around some neck
woe to them etcetera

 

• • •

 

there are so many proverbs about the devil—
how you shouldn’t let him get behind you
he’ll lean over your shoulder whispering
he’ll bore you to death—

 

his dreary notions of impropriety
his so-called sense of humor
how he needs his pile of skulls—

 

• • •

 

words need big teeth
with little birds hopping through
the monster mouth—cheerful,
doing business in a cloud of butterflies

 

while above the other clouds:
cycles, epicycles—baroque scrolls
the smooth curve of time sloping
toward a riffle of conclusion

 

• • •

 

Ah, Jack—the giants are all around

 

Martha McCollough is the author of Trash Witch (Lily Poetry Review Books 2025), Wolf Hat Iron Shoes (Lily Poetry Review Books 2022) and the chapbook Grandmother Mountain (Blue Lyra 2019). Her poems have appeared in Bennington Review, Pleiades, The Boiler, Bear Review, and Tampa Review, among others. Originally from Detroit, she lives in Amherst, MA.

 

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx