After mowing the lawn, the garage needed a paint job. It was while painting that I discovered a mole on my forearm had turned to a shade of deep brown. I snapped a picture of it and sent it to GPT, which said I needed a topical OTC to treat skin inflammation. The second I applied it, the mole expanded, blossoming like a dahlia. I … Continue reading Must’ve Been a Hallucination by Peter Crowley
When winds surge from the west and the guts are unearthed, there is a warping of tides. The moon is decapitated and the torso’s pull emerges from the prefrontal cortex. One has achieved this pull through struggle, yet, by god, it exists. A decision has been made and coronated on a papist balcony overlooking the rabble. Decision stretches out its hand, shielding its eyes from … Continue reading Decision by Peter Crowley
I know I am going to regret this but I want to say something about death. Not death in general, but my own death. That event of utmost uncertainty. The luck that got me here presumably peters out, drops the ball, as it were, folds, takes one for the team and determines, by way of virtually indisputable statistical evidence, to give up the ghost. Yeah. … Continue reading Metaphysics by Robert Witmer
I keep trying to explain it to Ringo. My dog, a golden retriever. I didn’t mean to leave it behind. Not at first anyway. Ringo’s willing to fetch whatever it is, but I keep trying to explain. We just can’t go there. Private property. The law. The right to bear arms. What’s left be damned. The River Styx in your craw, my pet peeve. The … Continue reading Il Ritorno di Ringo by Robert Witmer
When we met he wasn’t into the street shit no more. I liked that. Cool. Extra cool. No late night early mornings running around dirty. Said he did that before, been to prison and all that but he was done, never again. On some fuck prison shit. Got a regular job, a 9-5, and wasn’t playing with it. He told me that around the block … Continue reading Glamorous Whitegirl by Rachel Wagner
I was in a state of delirium. One I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to escape. I guess that’s the limbo as Christmas Eve bleeds into Christmas Day. In my delirium, I had the sensation that I was in a UFO, of sorts, and the “rain” was just glitter falling on the windshield. As if someone exhaled too hard and the glittery powder invaded … Continue reading 24/12/2024 by Fabiana Real-Bravo
Paula’s notebook. It’s where her lists live. She has metropolises of tasks. Her duties have taken over the red lines, and expanded to the margins schools teach us not to invade. The pages are supposed to be neat, organized, saturated with chemical equations and drawings of covalent bonds. However, reality is everlasting. Obligations rule her mind and her hands. So the pages are filled with … Continue reading 28/11/2024 by Fabiana Real-Bravo
My friends are dying. Aren’t yours? It seems like weekly. I hope it’s not contagious. I want to die later after I learn how to breathe without wearing my shoulders like bunny ears. I want to wait until my chest stays open for most of the day and my hands don’t clench or claw. I want some days during which soft is the first word … Continue reading America by Leanne Grabel
1976, I was living with this woman who let me live with her for free, if I worked as a sort of maintenance man. I’d have to crawl under her house and get rid of the animals who dragged themselves under there to die. In the winter, I’d be under there relighting the pilot light, after the pipes froze. I could hear her screaming through … Continue reading Bicentennial Man by Alex Osman
after “Love Letter” by Diane Seuss Dear X, I’ve learned you so well, like a dog-eared book read once too often. Repeated lines keep coming back to haunt me. But what can love be if it is a past tense event? I think the expression might be love’s lost or something of that nature. To my way of thinking, the affection you were after was … Continue reading Dear X by Dale Champlin
