The cover is a tabloid, but do not be fooled, the inside is poetry. There’s something different about this high-quality printed quarterly put out by organized and punchy editor, Brian Fugett. It’s not the 54 pages of “Coffee Cup Consummation” poetry, nor the two “Caffeinated Chaos” pages of comics. The magic is in the bios, and you must read them first: “Tony O’Neill is 26 years old and used to be a musician until it all fell apart and he found himself with no viable life skills and a voracious heroin and cocaine habit he could no longer afford.” Or maybe Michael Estabrook’s bio: “I’m in my mid-fifties and just got my first tattoo! My beautiful daughter Robin, who has a tattoo of a shiny blue dolphin on her upper thigh, encouraged me, ‘Come on Dad you have to do it!'” James Babbs’ bio reads: “Although I attended Illinois State University twice, I have yet to get a degree, but it sure was fun. I write poetry for the joy of it but in order to pay the bills I am employed by the Postal Service as a rural mail carrier.” But the best bio award definitely goes to Karl Koweski who shows us the bios are the real poetry here in Zygote in my Coffee, as he writes of himself: “I was the lead singer and banjo player of the now defunct country/punk/disco band The Screaming Shits, and now I just work in a machine shop and write articles for porno mags.” (Nadja Sayej)
Litzine, $7.50 US, 1417 Southlyn Dr, Kettering, OH, 45409, U.S.A. www.zygoteinmycoffee.com