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This fall, we challenged poets from across the world to write a sestina about supermarket tabloid headlines. We asked for creativity, originality and downright ridiculousness in capturing the evil spirit of the tabloid press and merging that spirit with the sestina format. Behold our winning submission.

 

100 years of newspapers boiled, but no nutritive content found
—SimCity 4 News Flash

Alien spills beans. Passes wind through shot-
proof glass. Says: My secret? It’s out — Finally,
Hell applies a fixed price on souls. Tacky, but
necessary
, confirms state representative. Blame it
on Chinese fakes
— Bigfoot hatches from an egg on
top of a pyramid. Can read “2001: A Space

Odyssey” aloud to tourists — Russian space
shuttle runs on mutant roaches! — A rifle shot
during the night makes a farmer’s leg grow on
a grapevine — The boogeyman finally
tells all: I was a teenage closet queen — It
can only be real! Nostradamus’ butt

hair appears every Friday night on dirty but-
ter knives — Fist fight for parking space
gives rise to a new religion. Shoppers attest: It
tastes like chicken
— Werewolf pierced with shot,
discovers feminine side. Admits finally
able to apply lipstick — Televisions on

stand-by mode may be Martians hitting on
women. Housewives confess not interested, but
available on the shopping network
— Finally,
Siamese twin calls extra body parts a waste of space.
Donates everything to cannery — A mug shot
of the Headless Horseman sells for $3M. It

is highway robbery. I’m betting he did it
with mirrors
, rants the Invisible Man — On
parole, Doomsday has been given another shot
at Hollywood. Rarely sober on its own, but
still considered one of Nature’s space
cadets — In Alabama, a UFO has finally

been identified. Its appeal to the senate: to finally
be addressed in conversations as John — Satan is it!
God claims to have tagged him first in outer space
before the holy brawl — Scientists clone Elvis’ head on
his guitar. Just like the real thing, they say, but
look Ma no hands
— Sleeping with a sawed-off shot-

gun finally approved as safer than safe sex on
a bear rug — Is it nature calling? A faulty eject but-
ton sends deer hunter to space inside a rabies shot!





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