The Scorpion Prize for Best Haiku/Senryu of ISSUE VII:1

The poems by john martone are exceptional in their capacity to meet the brief of the senryu, the wonderful doubly whammy of brevity combined with bite. The "fossil" is exposed less than the self-regard of the speaker. That same speaker is impervious to the fact that his positioning of himself with the "3 mushrooms" is emblematic of his own immanence. The Human Resources and Development Office cliche -- "reached out" -- brilliantly reveals the threat in what looks like a treat.

Paul Muldoon