Aphelion Issue 301, Volume 28
December 2024 / January 2025
 
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Mars Night Café

by Denny E. Marshall

Based On “Night Café” by Vincent Van Gogh
1st published in Page & Spine March 2018


After hard day of work in mines
Visit Faraway Night Café
Located on red planet mars
At the base of Olympus Mons

Patron’s backs bent permanently
From staring down into their drinks
Stories sand grains in hourglass
Frozen like hands of clock on wall

Then look away around the room
The mind wonders from place to place
Lamp radiates like tiny sun
Like copy of painting on display

Round number ball on pool table
Imagine is earth and moving
Small trays of spirits and substance
Mix in with shots of loneliness

Even millions of miles from home
Madness rides a traveling ghost
Internal like the universe
The sadness will last forever


© 2018, 2020 Denny E. Marshall

Denny E. Marshall has had art, poetry, and fiction published, some of it recently. Recent credits include interior art in Midnight Echo #14>/b> and poetry in Space & Tine Magazine #134 Fall 2019. See more at www.dennymarshall.com.

Find more by Denny E. Marshall in the Author Index.

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