1. Alec Solomita has published fiction in the Southword Journal, The Mississippi Review, Southwest Review, and The Adirondack Review, among other publications. He was shortlisted by the Bridport Prize and Southword Journal, and named a finalist by the Noctua Review. His poetry has appeared in Algebra of Owls, The Galway Review, The Lake, Literary Orphans, MockingHeart Review, and elsewhere. His poetry chapbook, ‘Do Not Forsake Me,’ was published by Finishing Line Press in 2017. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA.

Morality Tale

Virtue crawls through his beard like
lice, an apt accessory to the branches
and banana peels in his composting biz.
My man! Reducing methane emissions

is just one sign of his beneficence.
Was a time we’d call him a know-it-all;
now we just eye him biking by, his
bins filled with rot, his smile a smirk.

I tend to hold a grudge ’til the eagle grins:
Dropped a buck once to an old teeter on a grate
and Mr. Man says, ‘You shouldn’t give them
money. There are better ways to give.

He’ll just spend it on booze.’ ‘Just?’
I said. Stopped at the corner packy,
procured a pint, sat down on the sidewalk
by my new dawg and shot the shit ’til dawn.