Tom Docherty

A DIFFERENT CASH DISPENSER

He sat in the bus shelter waiting
As usual it wasn’t on time
He’d gone through his facebook and tik tok
And everyone seemed to be fine

He glanced around aimless and bored
Just thinking of something to do
People were using the cash machine
He wished he could take some out too

A car stopped outside the bank
Two guys wearing masks rushed inside
They both carried sawn off shotguns
Plain and open with no thought to hide

A loud report rang from the bank
And soon the two thieves reappeared
They clutched several sacks. Was it cash?
The sound of a police siren neared

Their car started moving quite fast
A hand scattered cash from a window
Bank notes just covered the road
The teenager needed no intro

He leapt from the shelter with speed
The money was blowing away
He gathered as much as he could
And legged it without a delay


Tom's YouTube reading of "A Different Cash Dispenser"


Tom confesses: "As I walked down my local High Street, I noticed a young lad standing in the opening of a bus shelter across the road from a cash machine. He looked obviously bored and was enviously watching people withdrawing money. I had the thought of the only was he was ever likely to get his hands on some cash."

On retirement TOM DOCHERTY gained a Creative Writing degree, writing poetry, prose, and scripts ever since. He has achieved hard and online publications In his spare time he makes walking sticks and shepherd’s crooks. He lives in rural Clydesdale and likes to walk the hills and mountains of Scotland and Austria.

Kevin Scheepers

FUMATA BIANCA - SURRENDER

Didn't earn much. But he was earnest.
In his efforts. To negotiate with a simpleton.
Still an extinguished gentleman. When it came to piercing the epidermis.
Liquid cocaine. Slithered into a known vein.
While the cold blade. Slid through like an old flame.
Bullet. Fueled by propane. Not fooled by the codename.
Profound fables. Spun. At the roundtable discussions.
Pie dividends. Had fatal repercussions.
Local dissidents. With shocked countenance.
Smiled widely. Watching the sanguine wound leak.
Cherubs with rosy cheeks. Cherish the cherry-picked.
Morning light garish. So downed the sherry. Very quick.
Tricked. Into a nightmarish. State of parish politics.
Panic made him sick. Don't perish. Before abolishment.
Heart made of bricks. Head full of holes.
Fumata nera. There shall be no king.


Kevin's YouTube reading of "Fumata Bianca - Surrender"


Kevin confesses: "This poem was inspired by the gang culture and violence prevalent in my local community, the insidious dynamics it entails, and how it ultimately ends badly for all involved."

KEVIN SCHEEPERS is a 28-year-old man from Pretoria, South Africa. He completed an MSc in Biotechnology in 2023, but always maintained a personal interest in the written arts, particularly poetry. His work has previously been published in Audience Askew and is soon to be published in Harrow House Journal and Academy of the Heart and Mind.

Anonymous

THE HIGH COST OF SAVINGS

The Department of Government Efficiency
calls it streamlining,
cutting fat from the bone—
but the marrow ran the systems.

Now the portal stalls,
error messages
pile up like heavy winter snow.

Cut the fraud team,
fire the inspectors who root out fraud, waste, and abuse,
cancel phone appointments,
close offices, change rules—
then gasp as the flood waters rise.

All in the name of savings—
but send the bill
to those who wait for sustenance payments,
who lose their homes
because a keystroke
no one was left to type
never happened.

The president flies
to his own resorts—
security swarming, motorcades humming—
calls it official,
charges it to the people.
Green fees as policy.
Hundreds of millions
sunk into his own sand traps.

Let’s call a watchdog a dog,
rename it the Office of Government Inefficiency—
barks and bites,
sniffing around,
pissing on the real work.

DOGI tears the fat from the bone,
cracks it open to suck out the marrow,
until nothing is left
but billionaire tax cuts
paid for by supporting fools
sinking in the sand traps.


YouTube reading of "The High Cost of Savings"


Anonymous confesses: "As a civil servant who has survived a few decades of shifts from one administration to another, no other has been as recklessly destructive as this one. And DOGE was on the front lines. In their supposed efforts to root out fraud, waste and abuse, they fired the Inspector Generals and entire departments dedicated to enhancing efficiencies. Past administrations have done questionable things. This one has been downright criminal."

The author is a federal worker who has been a civil servant for more than 30 years and who wishes to remain ANONYMOUS due to the way the current administration is treating federal workers who criticize or speak out about their actions.

Angela McClintock

GIVE AND TAKE

The night they shot my friend the cop,
I counseled a suicidal kid
Informing him of options open.

He, too, had a gun cocked
Pointing at his head
His previous cries for help
Unheard.

We negotiated ruthlessly
He with pain
Me with compromise
Finally, he agreed
To try tomorrow.

And as the kid attempted life,
My friend fought death
Tooth and nail,
but lost.


Angela's YouTube reading of "Give and Take"


Angela confesses: "At the time the poem was written, I was a counselor in a runaway shelter working with adolescents. I dealt with all of the childhood abuse and neglect issues and the suicidal ideations that come with suffering. I had a dear friend, a police officer who was killed in the line of duty trying to protect a battered woman the same timeframe I had been working with a suicidal youth. The juxtaposition of the two events haunted me. Thus, the poem."

“I’ve always been a storyteller, to the delight of my siblings and the chagrin of my parents." ANGELA McCLINTOCK, a licensed clinical social worker certified in trauma, spent the last three decades working with children and families in crisis. Writing has always been her creative escape.

Her first published novel, The Boy in the Basement, won first prize in the Bookfest 2024 for psychological thrillers. Grave Justice (book two in the Jennifer Riley series) was released in April 2025.

Angela lives in Birmingham, AL, with her two spoiled corgis, Loki and Odin.