Atop the cucumber trellis,
a red-tailed hawk, hunching
under his uniform’s epaulettes,
reconnoitered the vegetable garden,
the cottontail grazing outside the fence
frozen in July’s humid heat.
Nearby, a plump predator,
sporting a tuxedo and as richly fed
as a nobleman, conveyed a chipmunk
onto the screened back porch,
dropped its panting body on the planks,
plopped down to rest before the feast.
Scanning but not seeing, the hawk
floated away into the trees,
the rabbit invisible in its stillness.
The cat, too tired to dispatch his catch,
sighed into a nap in the sun,
the patient chipmunk motionless.
Thawed, the rabbit — ravenous as the hawk —
began to munch clover flowers
while the chipmunk — bone-weary as the cat —
quietly skittered away.
Daun Daemon’s fiction has appeared in Flock, Dead Mule School, Literally Stories, and Delmarva Review among others, and she has published poems in Third Wednesday, Typehouse Literary Review, Remington Review, Deep South Magazine, Into the Void, Peeking Cat Literary, Amsterdam Quarterly, and other journals. Daemon is currently at work on a memoir in poetry as well as short stories inspired by memories of her mother’s home beauty shop. She teaches scientific communication at North Carolina State University and lives in Raleigh with her husband and three cats.
Martin Potter is a poet and academic, and his poems have appeared in Acumen, The French Literary Review, Eborakon, Scintilla, and other journals. His pamphlet In the Particular was published by Eyewear in December 2017. Read more at 
Don is a biomedical researcher living in Pittsburgh, PA. His poetry has appeared online at TuckMagazine.com, Uppagus Magazine, Vox Populi Sphere, and others, in print in Hanging Loose (1972) and Neurology, and in several print anthologies including in both English and Farsi in Persian Sugar in English Tea, Volumes I and III.
Anthony Watts has been writing ‘seriously’ for about 40 years. He has won 26 First Prizes in poetry competitions and was longlisted for the National Poetry Competition 2014. His poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies, including Poetry Salzburg Review, The Rialto and Riggwelter. His fifth collection, Stiles, is due to be published by Paekakariki Press. His home is in rural Somerset and his main interests are poetry, music, walking and binge thinking – activities which he finds can be happily combined.
Spangle McQueen is a happy grandma and hopeful poet living in Sheffield.
Paul Waring is a retired clinical psychologist who once designed menswear and was a singer/songwriter in Liverpool bands. He is a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee whose poems have been published in Foxglove Journal, Prole, Amaryllis, High Window, Atrium, Algebra of Owls, Clear Poetry, Ofi Press, Marble Poetry, The Lampeter Review and others. Find more at 
Foxglove Journal 