The Rapid Room by Lawdenmarc Decamora

(after Requiem for a Dream) Feel the pain, the spiked effect of the year fastens like fantasy to the rapid room of human skin. Watch the junior tomato sun swiftly spinning forward the neon kitchen countertops, making big the dream to dance with cauliflowers while the text message remains unread, un-sniffing the curry powder from the freshest Woodstock of our lungs. See neon-painted plastic cups … Continue reading The Rapid Room by Lawdenmarc Decamora

On the Usual Problems of a Celebrity Like Sean Penn Writing a Book–One That’s Actually Prose

“It seems wrong to say that so dystopian a novel is great fun to read, but it’s true. I suspect that Thomas Pynchon and Hunter S. Thompson would love this book.” High praise indeed from Salman Rushdie. But is it truly the writing of Sean Penn or Sean Penn himself that has attracted this level of favor for a debut novel?–one that, at the very … Continue reading On the Usual Problems of a Celebrity Like Sean Penn Writing a Book–One That’s Actually Prose

Channels to fall asleep to by Tongo Eisen-Martin

While shoe box to shoe box travels my childhood Professionals roll garbage cans around a conference room Half the size of a holding tank Half the hope of a holding tank Full of third world retail flattery “nothing wrong with the blind leading the blind,”                          we think they just said porcelain epoch succeeding for the most part dying for the most part married for the … Continue reading Channels to fall asleep to by Tongo Eisen-Martin

Alone & Stirring by Adam Gunther

at Home: in city winter mint tea cools beside cracked windows; No one is coming to me tonight. I dream (figuratively) of her and I living with no interruptions, no static.  I dream (literally) of jumping out of an aeroplane landing on my feet with no parachute, no reservation. out Elsewhere: I hear the frail, Korean boutique owner closing down for the night — locking … Continue reading Alone & Stirring by Adam Gunther

How I Arrived At My First Conclusion by Rich Ives

1. A woolly bundle of infant said, I’m ready to be discovered. When I live again, I want to be feathered. What vision makes the blind man cry? Shame arrives in pairs, the teacher learning from the student. Infant to mother says, This delightful woman is the same package torn open without cause. Something with gravity fell upon it. Mother to infant says, I gathered … Continue reading How I Arrived At My First Conclusion by Rich Ives

Life and Death of Fallen Stars by Gilles Ansiaux

Abandoned in the arms of a so-called beloved stranger. Hustling some feelings for a flat to rent. Lucy would have loved to study further. But life chose for her…addiction Addicted to numbers under mattresses, Smoking papers after charmless gunshots. And wounds… Wounds that will never heal… Heads up She crossed life but, crippled in her heart, she faced time. Her age is her strength, her … Continue reading Life and Death of Fallen Stars by Gilles Ansiaux