Poetry

The Only Sign of Life by John Grey

In the creeping brown streambehind the abandoned textile mill,chemical runoffcurdles the current. No birds to be heard.No squirrels. No painted turtles.Not even a water rat. The sun’s a trespasserpoking around in weeds and grass,climbing down from broken rooftop tilesto peer in at rusty machinery. Then something long and scalyglides close to the bank,head hidden underwater,all but for two red piercing eyes. The town is dyingof competition from … Continue reading The Only Sign of Life by John Grey

Genna Rivieccio1 Comment
Poetry

The Illusionist by Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

I present to you   an ordinary mirror–   a poem in which I will attempt to recreate a memory   before your very eyes–a dangerous disguiseI must warn you nowdon’t try this at home I am   after all   only a reflection of youThe black dye leaking from my brain is not real  merely the faint imaging of a cheap out-of-date copy machinewet with promiseThe blood leaking from … Continue reading The Illusionist by Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

Genna Rivieccio1 Comment
Criticism

We Are All Gregor Samsa Now

Few knew better than Franz Kafka that life, if nothing else, is an inexplicably cruel joke. Seemingly orchestrated by an invisible sadist (sometimes called God). That the very term “Kafkaesque” is designed to connote a nightmarish tableau in which all signs of logic and reason have vanished in favor of convoluted blether is telling of his impact on our lives. Our lives in which dealing … Continue reading We Are All Gregor Samsa Now

Genna RivieccioLeave a comment
Satire

ISIS ISIS, Baby by Zeke Greenwald

Because businesses struggling in this tough economic time need all the help they can get: Because cultural institutions without our diligence will disappear even more swiftly: I present: Why I Am Joining the Islamic State. If we find ourselves fortunate enough to have a certain amount of financial stability in the current health and economic crisis; as coronavirus rends our society; we should take the … Continue reading ISIS ISIS, Baby by Zeke Greenwald

Genna Rivieccio1 Comment
Poetry

Nimble: Joker (2019) by Susie Gharib

A clown was my metaphor for the purely puerile.I resented his theatrics to elicit a smilesince I had always been too serious a child. I watched the film trailer and his fiery garbmade my lips curl with its giddy style,but there was something in the way he moved about,after his metamorphosis into a butterfly,that caught my attention and haunted my mind. My armor was pierced … Continue reading Nimble: Joker (2019) by Susie Gharib

Genna RivieccioLeave a comment
Essay

Quarantine, mon amour by John Jack Jackie (Edward) Cooper

i I look everywhere for solace but find none. The past seems more oppressive even than the present where I wallow speechless. Spring has finally come: the air is cheering and sunlit. Below, outside, from my window, I can see the people passing in lighter clothes, coats open, unbundled but for the white hospital masks they now wear reflexively—seemingly unmindful of the aberration, this mark … Continue reading Quarantine, mon amour by John Jack Jackie (Edward) Cooper

Genna Rivieccio1 Comment
Poetry

Spring, 2020 by Peter Crowley

Spring raises its rabbit ears and goes blind.A blind beggar coughs lyrics through his shoesThe passerby winces, hugging the sidewalk’s edgeThe arm is the repository site for depositing coronaSide roads are golden, filtered fromthe many desolate people who choke up the bike path –side roads are the antithesis: post-nuclear Armageddon, noiseless vacancy, though, eerily, all the cars are home Spring raises its rabbit ears and goes … Continue reading Spring, 2020 by Peter Crowley

Genna RivieccioLeave a comment
Poetry

This Madding Parade by O’ar Pali

The whole world, masked,For this phantom lust –Of Mother Nature gone wild Devouring her own cubs.  Still…Stand still.Don’t move an inch,Passed that window sill. Stand.Still. Hush.Don’t breathe –Man’s fate Hanging there Like a beggar Passed the gates,Of that ledge, Past the window’s Flowery bed, And forward Into that past,Yet to be shed – At last.  Yes. Stand still. Stand there. Don’t think, Don’t seek,Don’t dream,– of yesterdays.Don’t gleam, on Love’s passed parades, Those past lives,Those past falters In your eyes.  Still. Stand. Still. And … Continue reading This Madding Parade by O’ar Pali

Genna RivieccioLeave a comment
Fiction

The Corona Honeymoon, Pt. 3 by Elles Rebelles

“Having trouble staying at home? Shave your eyebrows off.” I scroll through memes. Next to me, Sergei is on his phone scrolling. The sun makes the cum on my belly glisten. We just had sex for the second time today. The afternoon sex is the best. Where in the morning my pleasure is being anesthetized by sleep, and his dick rolling in and out of … Continue reading The Corona Honeymoon, Pt. 3 by Elles Rebelles

Genna RivieccioLeave a comment
Poetry

Makeshift Bed by Joseph Buehler

When I was in my early teens I slept on a makeshift bed (a couch actually) that sat onthe small screened-in front porch of ourfarmhouse in Michigan. I only slept therea few times. A farm road fronted the porch and occasional cars or trucks passed by. Did the drivers noticeme when I arose from the couch early in themornings clothed in pajamas or a shirt and pants?I didn’t … Continue reading Makeshift Bed by Joseph Buehler

Genna RivieccioLeave a comment