tunneling back worm, mole, me what did he say? then—that one perfect moment trapped in the amber of imminent joy convoluted phrases seemingly clear as they fell from his lips ambient warmth, veering to love while I, inebriated worm, lolled in dumb damp bliss. wombed by his words entombed, I felt lights pulse. see, saw, see them there yes, but am I not blind? fetal … Continue reading Gaslight by Liz Duff Young
She was a condemned tenement building –all crumbling facades, erratic wiring, shaky foundation– but of course no, she was just a human, a woman, in whom many cells were born, divided, mutated and died She was not she, not really, she was cells, all so very alive. Rushing up the scaffolding of bone, the choicest among them converged in her brain, elbowing their way to … Continue reading Tenement by Liz Duff Young
It’s been too long since a female musician put out an autobiography, really. Maybe not since Kim Gordon’s 2015 memoir, Girl In A Band, has such fanfare been made over a literary release of the music world. But, as Lily Allen points out time and time again throughout My Thoughts Exactly, her music has rarely been about the music, so much as exorcizing the long-standing demons … Continue reading Narcissism Can Still Lead to Resonant Writing: Lily Allen’s My Thoughts Exactly
What’s behind this preoccupation with UFOs, this anticipation of ferocious foes? Aren’t the contorted, alien forms with ugly horns a reflection of your own distorted souls? You project your own mania for wars your abductions of slaves, infants and thrones, your inhuman experiments on animals and clones on extraterrestrial norms. What if our eyes are radiant beams that covet not, nor evil breathe. What if … Continue reading An Alien’s Perspective by Susie Gharib
While, of course, there is a bittersweetness to all novels centered on aging, perhaps no other in recent memory gets it so right regarding both the cruel and just nature of time. That novel in question being Andrew Sean Greer’s Less, which miraculously won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2018 in the face of it being a “humorous” work. And, as we all know, … Continue reading The Sadness of Past Romance As Delineated by the Depiction of Age in Less
Observe all the times you go, But surely Take notice of It was a different time Which draws a bead on It could have been me I could have done that Which frog marches to (Incongruously/invariably) Therefore It wasn’t innocent. It never was. None of it ever was. Not by a far cry. Apologize, apologize, apologize. Continue reading Black History Month for White People by Giovanna Pompele
Bon ok d’accord je t’épouse, mais tu viendras pas pleurer plus tard ok? Parce que je t’aurais prévenu Je t’aurais prévenu que je suis insupportable, Que quand je souris je veux faire sourire tout le monde Mais quand je suis pas bien c’est comme un nuage de pluie constamment au-dessus de ma tête Et moi je veux pas t’éclabousser avec ma mauvaise humeur et ma … Continue reading Bon ok d’accord je t’épouse, mais… by Agathe Bourgeois
Oh, God India with your 4am japa mala parties, raving to mantras at sunrise as Surya embraces the temples’ rooftops each morning. With your saffron robes and American swamis and Russian devotees and sweet milk prasad. With your every street corner turning into a very public toilet. And your children touching me and crying for money when no “Hare Krishna” will satisfy their needs. What … Continue reading GOD INDIA by Sarah Helena
