Chemical Imbalance by Zeke Greenwald

Were those really bats we sawover the Hinterhof?Or were they birds swirlingto show the evening off? And was it really hemlockWhich grew around the lake?Or was it an umbellifer,Which it wouldn’t kill to take? Was it really all that grey?Were the streets at night so dark?If Berlin was so morose,Luke, I need not pine at all. Yet German doctors wrote you rosesTo combat your stress.And … Continue reading Chemical Imbalance by Zeke Greenwald

The Effect of Karma in Cyprus by Alexander Lowell

To the end of my days I won’t Drink red wine in a Greek restaurantEspecially one where there is bouzouki music,A waiter has set fire to a plate of cheeseAnd a full moon is languishing on the veranda      You’ve ruined it for me Until my final wheezing breath I shan’tBe within hearing distance of Any tragic song—by Kalogiannis,Parios, Dalaras, Mitropanos—In which it is midnight, too much retsina has … Continue reading The Effect of Karma in Cyprus by Alexander Lowell

The Unturned Stone by Richard Weaver

looks back in disgustat those who walk pastall ignorance and innocencetheir world revolvingwithout thoughtaround a blissnever to exist It knows despaira hardness unyieldingwind caressing its broadshoulders for millenniawater insinuating itselfwhere not welcome looks beneath itselfnested and embraced by earthits shape a perfect fitthe earth cooledthe earth heatedby its shape and presenceknows the comfort theremore to comeand leaves well enough alone Continue reading The Unturned Stone by Richard Weaver

I Ate a Raymond Carver by Sherri Levine

I ate a Raymond Carverat the Press Club Café It tasted good: smoked salmon, spinachtomato, shallots, fresh dill. If I ate you,Raymond Carver,would I write like you?Minimal, genuine, chiselingflesh-and-blood characters:living, struggling, working, always longing for something orsomeone. I’d like to hold a blind man’shand, draw a cathedral,throw all my furniture on thelawn, or peer through a lockeddoor, like a hungry, horny neighbor. I long for someone that I can … Continue reading I Ate a Raymond Carver by Sherri Levine

The Basement Poetry Reading Comes To the Capitol (And No, That’s Not A Compliment)

It is said that you cannot judge someone “so young” with the same yardstick of measurement that you would someone more mature, more established in their field. With 22-year-old Amanda Gorman’s poetry reading at Joe Biden’s inauguration, however, that becomes something of a tall order. Her delivery of the roughly six-minute long “The Hill We Climb” felt, by and large, rough-hewn, as though we were … Continue reading The Basement Poetry Reading Comes To the Capitol (And No, That’s Not A Compliment)

Pizza Man by John C. Mannone

When not studyingfor exams from expensive books,he guards the oak wood flamethat tempers the brick hearthwalls, its smooth stone floor—soot scraped away. He thinks of Robert Frost, his simple poemswhile tossing the pliable dough,shapes it to fit a circular pallet,brushes with a branch of rosemarydipped in garlic-infused olive oiluntil it glistens in kitchen light. He spreads a dollop of red sauceall over, before slices of … Continue reading Pizza Man by John C. Mannone