Month: May 2024

Poetry

Of Toulouse-Lautrec by Frank Freeman

only five feet tall,about the heightof my mother,with those short legs,Van Dyke beard,thick lips,pince-nez, hishat and brushesand palette. (Iwonder if theshort guy whoalways walks downStorer Streethas the same con-dition, pycnodysostosis,say that three timesfast?) how he lovedthe whores, the nightlife, their acceptance,everyone havinga good time untilit killed them. butmostly of how hepainted a portraitof Van Gogh andchallenged de Groux,who had put theDutchman down, toa duel backed … Continue reading Of Toulouse-Lautrec by Frank Freeman

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Essay

Patricia Highsmith and the Romance of Being A Man/Man of Leisure in The Talented Mr. Ripley

Out of all her works, it is in The Talented Mr. Ripley that Patricia Highsmith makes it glaringly apparent that, to her, the most liberating thing of all is to be a man. For it means the ability to muck about as one pleases. And not as a housewife, which was the only way a woman could loll around back in the day…even though enforced … Continue reading Patricia Highsmith and the Romance of Being A Man/Man of Leisure in The Talented Mr. Ripley

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Poetry

Eating Reds & Drinking Beer by Stephen Barile

I came home to learnMy collaborator from high school,Bob, was strung-out on “reds.”What I mean to say,He was addicted to Seconal.“Reds,” “red devils,” “red dillies,” Sleeping pills.Five, 100 milligram,Lilly F-40s capsules,Red/orange colored, bullet-shaped Pulvules, every day.The same pills with alcoholKilled Marilyn Monroe.I couldn’t judge himFor his drug addictionUnless I tried it,Took the drug myself.The stuff was easy to obtainAlmost anywhere in town,Even the chief of policeWas … Continue reading Eating Reds & Drinking Beer by Stephen Barile

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Fiction

Three Strangers by Josiah Golojuh

On the cold blister of a dead, broken highway walked the spectral blurs of three figures. A minuscule speck of dim light glowed from the center of the group. Ethereal beings? Perhaps…once upon a long ago time. Now just three individuals looking for a hot meal and a dry bed. The light itself felt like a memory, was nothing but a feeble tin lantern to guide their way, … Continue reading Three Strangers by Josiah Golojuh

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Interview

Bonafide Rojas and Malik Crumpler in Conversation About Excelsior, Poetry, Music, Influences & More

Bonafide Rojas is one of those phenomenal poets you hear about before you hear or read their work. I first heard about him in the early 2000s thanks to Khalil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, who hosted multi-genre art tours and readings from the Bay Area to Puerto Rico to Cuba to New York. Even then, Rojas’ poetry was an inspiration to international poets for expanding the form, content … Continue reading Bonafide Rojas and Malik Crumpler in Conversation About Excelsior, Poetry, Music, Influences & More

Genna Rivieccio3 Comments
Criticism

What If The Year of Magical Thinking Is Actually A Book About the Hazards of Codependency?

Earlier this year, Sloane Crosley released a book called Grief Is for People. Detailing the loss of her close friend and mentor, Russell Perreault, it is, in many ways, a spawn of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking (this connection can be read about more in-depth in the Vol. 37 issue of The Opiate). Crosley, accordingly, is not shy about referencing it a few … Continue reading What If The Year of Magical Thinking Is Actually A Book About the Hazards of Codependency?

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Poetry

The Ghostman by Jonathan Jansikok

The tyranny of the past sweeps over tent city, baking in the sun, undulating waves in yellow light. The ghostman crouched against the wall stares at me with dark eye sockets wrapped tightly by the sun’s deep exhale. His left arm outstretched before me. His right hand floating above the forearm like he is playing a sideways harp. I sit and listen, but the asphalt burns more than his sad song. Continue reading The Ghostman by Jonathan Jansikok

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