(In a middle sized Ohio town a waitress kicks a dirty fork back into the kitchen.) The Present is an unsmiling disheveled Minnesota giant who stands behind a door holding a sledgehammer in one hand and a bottle of Jim Beam in the other. The Past is an overweight mathematician who accidentally drops his chalk. When he bends over to retrieve it the students in … Continue reading A Middle Sized Ohio Town by Joseph Buehler
I called my grandma on the phone To ask about the news: Her neighborhood was down the lives Of some a dozen Jews. There’s a funeral today, and then Another one tomorrow; On Thursday they’ll still inter The victims of the sorrow. On Friday, Grandma goes once more To a funeral, Back in the day Shirley was Her neighbor after all. “Friday is really kind … Continue reading I called my grandma… by Zeke Greenwald
For the Central American Refugee Caravan Montreal, Canada 2:00AM November 2018 As if Tijuana wasn’t alive with all these thousands of bruises. All these sunrises and mariachis have taught us that our houses have shoes on. No American dream just enough beans and rice to get by. Our father will have paint or dirt stains on his jeans at our graduation ceremony. Kisses are more … Continue reading it wouldn’t be Los Angeles without the Hondurans by Francisco Orozco
This high wire act can only end one way and really we look forward to the fall someday soon the corn will start popping someday soon we will get out of bed and put our feet down in water maybe we will rush toward each other then maybe we won’t Continue reading If You Squint You Can See the End of the World by Steve Denehan
We knew they were American the moment they emerged and began trudging toward the pool we knew, not because of the aloof tilt of the father’s chin nor their accent, ricocheting flatly between apartment blocks it was the Stars and Stripes bikini that gave it away and the matching Stars and Stripes swimming shorts on father and son the father, an enormous man, booming of … Continue reading USA! by Steve Denehan
Some people cannot bear to be alone those people are missing the point today I was alone, gloriously the kitchen thirstily drank in the flaming light of this Indian summer an Indian summer that had waited, calmly to announce itself in the depths of October I got drunk on the sweetness of that unexpected sunshine saw myself stretched in carnival shadows along warm carpet and … Continue reading Car Door by Steve Denehan
At the core of Melissa Broder’s still all too scant body of work (primarily the essay collection, So Sad Today) is a constant obsession with the human need to fill holes. Whether that translates to a woman literally filling her vag hole with as many dicks as possible or, well, no, that’s really Lucy’s–the “protagonist” of The Pisces–only bread and butter, her sole means toward … Continue reading Melissa Broder’s The Pisces: The Fisherman and His Soul It Is Not
I want to taste the perfume of your mouth until I go numb with pleasure and pain I have become An echo of past reckoning The un-being of a person Pleasured by my own undoing By a boy with a vendetta Against the many wombs Who conspired against him And his brotherly abode In the world of men this was an unspoken treaty That man … Continue reading The Divide by Harley Claes
Tony met him during his second morning run on the beach near Puerto Plata. They ran in the opposite directions on the empty beach, crossing each other’s paths at half past four in the morning. For the first time, they just looked at each other, not sure whether to acknowledge each other’s presence. But the next day the guy stopped and asked Tony where he … Continue reading Carlos and Us by Ewa Mazierska
Independent Sunshine was stopped by the police Sunshine asks, “What’s the matter, you don’t like my freedom?” to a cop wearing a “freedom’s not free” hat The cop, timorously, albeit threateningly, waves an enormous American flag at Sunshine, as if scaring away foxes from the chicken coop When Sunshine remarked, “Thanks for reminding me what country we’re in!” it was promptly arrested for “violent” defamation … Continue reading Freedom’s Not Free by Peter Crowley
