The Salami Asylum by Rufo Quintavalle

In the salami asylum it’s electrodes à gogo and Château d’Yquem; it’s Thorazine spritzers, Betelgeuse, and a cardboard kidney dish of phlegm. In the salami asylumthere’s a stick thinAustrian nurse who spends her time reminding you that things can always get worse. She takes away your powerand keeps it safewith your will at the top of a crystalline toweron a five-and-a-halfinch windowsill. In the salami asylumthe inmates are alldoing life; there’s a donor who’s friendswith the … Continue reading The Salami Asylum by Rufo Quintavalle

On falling in love with right-wing Latinx butterflies by Francisco Orozco

Lisbon, Portugal They say that the most beautiful women in the world are from Venezuela, from Latin America; according to Miss Universe. Throughout my life, I came to the realization that Mexicans are not seen as beautiful, since I am a Mexican. Mexicans did not do the thing that beautiful people (white middle class people) do.  By the way, what makes a woman beautiful?  The … Continue reading On falling in love with right-wing Latinx butterflies by Francisco Orozco

The English Make A Hard Job Of Being Happy by Nick Ingram

The English make a hard job of being happy, a lot of the time it just seems it’s too much hard work – they find it easier to be mawkish and miserable. Regardless of the pain we still have the necessity to celebrate this messy thing we call  life: this is the essence of living. I have this sense of having pushed this abstract experiment … Continue reading The English Make A Hard Job Of Being Happy by Nick Ingram

Now That She’s Dead, The Thank Yous Come In For Elizabeth Wurtzel Paving a Certain Long and Whining Road for Many Subsequent Female Writers

Elizabeth Wurtzel was all too aware of the scandal and outrage she was about to wreak with the release of the then most “self-indulgent” (read: privileged white girl) novel–nay, memoir–of all-time (put out on the heels of other “whiny” Gen Xer fare, including Douglas Coupland’s 1991 book, Generation X, and Susanna Kaysen’s [though not a Gen Xer herself] 1993 Girl, Interrupted). And even if she … Continue reading Now That She’s Dead, The Thank Yous Come In For Elizabeth Wurtzel Paving a Certain Long and Whining Road for Many Subsequent Female Writers

The Timeliness of The Great Gatsby Going Into the Public Domain in the 20s

As the first decade of the 2020s gets underway, it seems all too timely that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most major work, The Great Gatsby, will at last enter the public domain on January 1, 2021. As one of the most quintessential novels not only of the flapper decade, but the twentieth century itself, its foray into the free-for-all realm in “the new 20s” has more … Continue reading The Timeliness of The Great Gatsby Going Into the Public Domain in the 20s

Loud Fading Clocks by O’ar Pali

I heard the clocks Chime in A new year, As candles Burning bright Faded out past Sights.  I felt my body Shake, as Memories came Back,And bones standing Still Held tight,At the new dawn’s Foreshadowing light. While warm embracesOf past kisses Bathed away bygone Loves, and miseries: And I like Wendy Danced in My mind’s eye – With Happy,DwindlingFairy dust, There rising, Flying, To new Neverlands, New homes, New birthsNew unruly Seas, Of what is yet –To be. Melting away Sad thoughts As Peter Pan Flew with me,  And I heard theDear young soul Cry … Continue reading Loud Fading Clocks by O’ar Pali