Month: June 2025

Poetry

Girls’ Night Out by Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

I tried to avoid the draft  instead I stayed to serve  breakfast lunch radio dinners in their aluminum coffins (all short orders)  sex—the main  love—the side  blues on tap  “And how would you like  your brown-eyed baby girl?”  I dished wiping the spit-shine from my tits “Sunny-side up    or over easy?”  “Easy,” you groaned— consciousness slipping from its zip-lock bag—   Nirvana  now only   the name of a rock band  “Easy, huh” me   brushing flies from your lips— the stench of the … Continue reading Girls’ Night Out by Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

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Poetry

Goodbye, America by Kathryn Adisman

America! Remember me?Who am I? The little girl who stood upin first grade, hand over heart,and recited the Pledge of Allegiance: I pledge allegiance to the Flagof the United States of Americaand to the Republic for which it stands, one nationunder God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.  “THAT LITTLE GIRL WAS ME!”to quote Kamala Harris, who was bussed to school.Like her, I believed … Continue reading Goodbye, America by Kathryn Adisman

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Poetry

Only threw this party for you by Gaia Huaira Capizzi Candiracci

You feel out for anything resembling empathy or interest on the lower base of my back, a gentler hand skimmed over the sliver of skin in between my mini skirt and sheer black top.On purpose, I don’t wear a bra as we watch torture porn masquerading as a horror film.My boyfriend writes to me from back home; I leave a message saying I’ll talk to him … Continue reading Only threw this party for you by Gaia Huaira Capizzi Candiracci

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Interview

When The Phone Rang… The Call of the Muse Was Answered: An Interview with Youssef Alaoui and Anton Bonnici

The subject matter of Youssef Alaoui and Anton Bonnici’s new release, When the Phone Rang, feels as timely now as it did at one of the heights of anti-Arab sentiments and policies: in the immediate years that followed 9/11. The Opiate took some time to discuss, among other topics, how the original short story, “When the Phone Rang,” came to be and why the resonance … Continue reading When The Phone Rang… The Call of the Muse Was Answered: An Interview with Youssef Alaoui and Anton Bonnici

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Poetry

À la Harpo, 1992 by Priscilla Atkins

God, what’s wrong with us? What’s so god-damned-funny about answering a phone. I’m visiting—it’s your and Paul’s apartment—that’s part of it. You’re in the same room with me. Making faces. After eyebrow-raising me into answering Paul’s line. Paul, already blind,is three floors down, sunning his reed-thin body au jardin. You (later) explain, the renovator lined up for the master bath, Paul’s latest project, worries, phones a tad often. This … Continue reading À la Harpo, 1992 by Priscilla Atkins

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Book Review

Curtis Smith’s Deaf Heaven Explores the Hunger for a Moral Compass in an Immoral Society by Charles Holdefer

Politically timely novels in the twenty-first century are largely accidental. The novel business is slow, while the news cycle runs faster and faster. Despite our much-vaunted technical progress, the lag time between signing a book contract and the book’s actual release is longer than it was a generation ago, and compared to previous generations, the pace is glacial. (For instance, despite wartime paper-rationing, George Orwell’s … Continue reading Curtis Smith’s Deaf Heaven Explores the Hunger for a Moral Compass in an Immoral Society by Charles Holdefer

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