How could it be that there is nothing behind that face, unique as it is: crooked, worn from the grinding years of tension? How could it be that never was anyone home when there was such throbbing, such life force, to wear down his teeth and twist his body? His stormy words. His wild gestures. Such exuberance as parent and teacher. How could it be? … Continue reading Surface Show by M. A. Istvan Jr.
Because the hubs of literature are often tragically left to the devices of those in Los Angeles and Brooklyn, we, the limited few among the reading public, are primarily saddled with what my ex would probably deem low art (because everything that isn’t Stendhal is low art, right?). It’s not necessarily always a bad thing–except, in retrospect, the work of Chuck Klosterman is pretty banal. … Continue reading Britney Spears Is All We Have to Inspire the Current Landscape of Literature
The Archies are playing overhead and it feels all retro like you’re twenty again and Veronica drifts toward you like a sylph—away from her boyfriend who hovers, rattish and drooping dead over bored— You are a pulsing magnet, a metallic draw in the bar’s yellow light. This lonely girl’s languid like ebony, pouring herself into a chair near you, but just far enough away so … Continue reading Betty & Veronica by Christine McDermott
You can bear a lot, but sometimes you can’t talk about it. My mother was like that. She kept things on an even keel, smiled, worked extra shifts on sore feet, whispered kisses. When she had to talk, she would at times give in and cry. As a youngster I found that difficult to grasp. Discomforting. It seemed an oddity of hers. Now, in the … Continue reading You Can and You Can’t by Gary Galsworth
See you tonight in the dark, darling. Undressed, I will join you in the yellow sheets of your mistress’ bed. Wait and see… Music is playing on its own. We are two characters in a game, naked, playing hide and seek, searching for a breakdown. By the evening’s end we are bones, flesh and blood, before disappearing swiftly like late snow does. Continue reading See You Tonight by Justine Duhayon
I wanted to write about those bitches about how they followed me onto the bus every day after school and spit in my hair about how they waited on my corner for me to walk by and they hurled rocks at me or chased me for blocks to cut me to hurt I was gonna put on paper how they crank-called me just to call … Continue reading Beastie by Donna Dallas
I sat on the park wall, blissfully aimless my legs dangled, not quite reaching the ground I kicked my heels against the bricks, enjoying the resistance I saw her front door open and she stepped out hesitant to close it behind her short brown hair, light raincoat, black shoes nondescript she stood a while, looking downward she waited, I waited the silence was interrupted by … Continue reading Two Steps Forward by Steve Denehan
I knew Cammy back in high school, class of 2015, Potawatomi Rapids High. Real name’s Camilla Martinsen, already something out of show biz. She was really stacked from about the time she was in sixth grade. It was hard not to stare. So when I heard the story of her meteoric rise to success in the adult film industry I wasn’t surprised. True, some of … Continue reading Camming It Up by Charles Rammelkamp
Sometimes you get better at learning “how to get better” Face gets puffy from drinking about you too much Head doesn’t focus thinking about you too much Belly soft eating courses with you too much It gets muggy Theft happens and spring turns to summer “I really needed a friend” I told you I couldn’t even be that to you Waking up still drunk … Continue reading Toothpaste by Aurora Bodenhamer
Once, secure at the center, you would come to this verge to pretend—to play at surrender. You’d pick a wave, watch it gather its force; you’d place yourself in its juggernaut path just where it would heave highest, its top lip all froth curled over you; then you’d let it crush you under and drag you, helpless, flailing, toward shore. At your ears a muffled … Continue reading Babel Beach by Steven C. Reese
