Magazine
Sam Culotta: “A Winter Coat”
Paul Ilechko: “Memories of a Memory”
Madison Isbell: “corpus christi, early march”
Lindsay McLeod: “Sleeping Dogs”
Andrew Mulvania: “Self Portrait As The Grasshopper Trapped Inside Van Gogh’s Olive Trees”
Abner Oakes: “Floating Teeth”
Sterling Warner: “Slap Shot”
As It Ought To Be is proud to announce our nominees for the 2026 Best of the Net Anthology.
Laurel Benjamin: “Motel Room Without a Night Light”
Jane-Rebecca Cannarella: “Quilted Rainbows”
Karina Castrillo: “I never wanted you to be like us”
Felicia Clark: “Chrome Cheers”
Paul Ilechko: “A Life in Art”
Jimmy Pappas: “The Ineffable”
Rose Mary Boehm: “Boil them”
Rebecca Clifford: “Climatic Divinations”
Sam Hendrian: “Magazine Ads”
Paul Ilechko: “A Clock Is Ticking”
Tricia Knoll: “Next Time You Interview a Unicorn Prepare Better Questions”
H.K.G. Lowery: “Villa Diodati”
Samuel Prestridge: “Why I’ve Not Cut Down The Yes Ma’am Bush”
Tamarah Rockwood: “Persephone’s first day out”
Jason Ryberg: “No Great Hurry”
Matthew Ussia: “Home Improvement Advice for Anyone Owning a House More Than One Hundred Years Old”
A Life in Art
Starting with charcoal
catch the movement
sixty seconds to finish
the drawing to capture
the gesture in the fewest possible
lines so much is about
touch move on to the camera
and now it’s about framing
it’s about depth of field
where so much depends on
the interaction of speed
and aperture talk to me
about art and how it defines
our lives we are windblown
through space and time
we are the green edges
that surround this city
the mailman on his rounds
the fish in the canal
where a man floated
slowly past a long pole
in his hands make a movie
from these elements
the story should tell itself.
About the Author: Paul Ilechko is a British American poet and occasional songwriter who lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ. His work has appeared in many journals, including The Bennington Review, The Night Heron Barks, deLuge, Stirring, and The Inflectionist Review. He has also published several chapbooks.
Image Credit: August Macke Baum und Felder. 1911 Public domain image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Sonnet for Redecorating Plato’s Cave
Plato in his allegory invented a cavern
a tight cramped dark place
with only a flickering fire to provide light
a miserable place for limited people
who ignore the real world engrossed in
the sad mindless flickering of their television
but now there are plans to expand the cave
divided into sections of foreground
middle ground and background
whitewash the walls and renovate each area
appropriately flooding the space
with reflected natural light decorated
in earth tones and neutrals an expensive look
that can be adapted to an upscale eatery.
About the Author: Paul Ilechko is a British American poet and occasional songwriter who lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ. His work has appeared in many journals, including The Bennington Review, The Night Heron Barks, deLuge, Stirring, and The Inflectionist Review. He has also published several chapbooks.
Image Credit: Hubert Robert A Family In A Cave Interior (1784) Public domain image courtesy of Artvee
Pig Roast Sonnet They all wore black and stank of last week’s Miller Lite they stank of smoke and memories they stank of bitterness that picked up speed as it tumbled downhill and across the town before it skidded to a halt in front of the fire where a pig’s head stared vacantly into the middle-distance unfocused clouds for eyes they all wore camouflage as they blended into suburban life in a small New Jersey town where cathedral bells were tolling to remind them of the ones they left behind in rough pine boxes buried shallow or nothing left at all except the smell of meat and a memory of a face staring emptily through the stink of whiskey and pain
About the Author: Poet and songwriter Paul Ilechko lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ. He is the author of several chapbooks. His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including The Night Heron Barks, Feral Journal, Iron Horse Literary Review, Gargoyle Magazine, and Book of Matches. His first album, “Meeting Points”, was released in 2021.
.
Image Credit: The natural history of quadrupeds, and cetaceous animals. Bungay, [England] Printed and published by Brightly and Co,1811. Courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (public domain)
.
.
.
Five Fragments of a Narrative
Arriving by plane
at a western airport somewhere
below in that spreading purple
and orange wilderness there are people
searching for whatever
it is that means freedom to them
* * * * * *
sandstone being the inevitability
of erosion an elementary
exchange from water to air
as the wings wobble very slightly
from side to side a silent salute
to the vast expanse of mountain
* * * * * *
the people of the desert follow
at a distance their boots leaving
tracks in the tainted earth
above them a sudden glint
of sunlight on metal a quiet hum
and a flash that trails the range
* * * * * *
tired passengers press their faces
to the glass watching for a plane
that never arrives the desert
burning red and gold beneath
a setting sun the walkers holding
close to the memory of a shadow
* * * * * *
in Black Diamond Bay Dylan sings
of Walter Cronkite as a metaphor
for honesty vestigial as we
no longer have his equivalent
we must realize that the fate
of the plane may never be determined.
.
.
About the Author: Poet and songwriter Paul Ilechko is the author of three chapbooks, most recently “Pain Sections” (Alien Buddha Press). His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including The Night Heron Barks, Rogue Agent, Ethel, San Pedro River Review, Lullwater Review, and Book of Matches. He lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ.
.
Image Credit: Chase Dimock “LAX At Sunset” (2021)
Lemonade
A summer day hot as lemonade stand
and there she was a mere child learning
capitalism from first principles a folding chair
and a rickety desk a stack of paper cups
or possibly plastic who remembers such
details at this distance and the honeyed jug
ice cold in the quivering breath of heatwave
continual now for days without respite
and there we appeared to spend our quarters
assisting in the catechism of commerce
of location location location as she pounced
on the closure of the general store
on this holiday that suffered through
the dazzling whiteness we also suffered
sweaty and parched we dismounted from
our bicycles first in dismay and then relief
now some years later we observe
in our rear mirrors
not weather but a prophecy
speeding to fulfillment.
About the Author: Paul Ilechko is the author of the chapbooks “Bartok in Winter” (Flutter Press, 2018) and “Graph of Life” (Finishing Line Press, 2018). His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Manhattanville Review, West Trade Review, Cathexis Northwest Press, Otoliths and Pithead Chapel. He lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ.
Image Credit: Digital Art made from “Iced lemonade: cool & refreshing” by Currier & Ives (1879) The Library of Congress
As It Ought To Be 
