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Widow Country – Anna Rowser

Thursday, July 21, 2016 0:34 — 0 Comments

The spring of their retirement, the husband and wife packed all the possessions they wanted to keep in a shipping container. They planned to resettle in the southern California suburbs once they found a house, somewhere closer to where they’d grown up and where their siblings still lived. Better weather than the east coast, even if it was widow country. Black widows in every woodpile, potentially lurking in any outdoor cranny or nook. And now brown widows too, a non-native variety that moved in closer to human dwellings. The wife led the operation of unpacking the container with the caution […]

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THE HIGH COST OF LIVING – Lee Todd Lacks

Monday, July 4, 2016 9:34 — 1 Comment

Mary Ellen Magner lay doubled over the tall, split-rail fence, blissfully unaware of what was about to happen. Dazed by the events of that sultry, summer morning, she could still feel Roy kneading her ample backside. The sweet-natured neighbor boy had been at it for twenty minutes when Momma walked in to catch him reaching up her dress. Mary Ellen laughed as she peered through the sheer gingham fabric, which now hung upside-down over her head. Between the split rails and her dangling legs, she could make out her mother’s shadowy form, trimming what appeared to be a slender, sapling […]

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ALMAGEST (an excerpt from the novel Najma) – Danny Sherrard

Thursday, May 26, 2016 12:18 — 0 Comments

I didn’t hear about the skeleton they found on the moon until three days after they found it, which is a little late to receive that kind of news. I was at the bar Almagest (where I get most my news anyway) and two people sitting down the counter were talking about it with an iPad in front of them. The closest one to me was saying that he thought it was a hoax to distract us from the fact that we’re at war. The further one down, who was bald, said, Maybe, but what if it is something else? I […]

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A Night Of Blight: Psychic Warfare At The Mercury

Thursday, September 17, 2015 11:08 — 0 Comments

I don’t think Jake, The Monarch’s Editor and Chief, had any idea what he was getting into when he accepted Poster Bot’s first article. The Monarch takes great pride in providing opportunities to new (and often eccentric) authors, but nobody expected this author would be a real-life counterpart to the debauched Gonzo Journalist he writes himself as. Poster Bot does good work, but he’s not easy to work with, so I was brought in as a special Gonzo Editor to share the burden. Jake chose me because I’m physically intimidating, or as Poster Bot describes me “A 300 pound graduate […]

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Sour Cream Girls – Gen Del Raye

Monday, September 7, 2015 8:28 — 0 Comments

The TSA agent doesn’t know how much a Port Ellen 1981 costs, and he doesn’t care. All he knows is that the bottle is more than three ounces. That much is clear.

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Alex’s Parrot – Sara Brody

Friday, July 17, 2015 16:23 — 0 Comments

I am beginning to worry that my parrot is ill, but he dodges interrogation. I’ll say, “How are you feeling today?” and he’ll say, “How are you feeling today?” I’ll say, “Do you want a Ritz Bit?” and he’ll quote Nietzsche. He once belonged to my brother Alex, who is dead. A lot of people I know are dead. This happened when I was sixteen. That night I sat up in Alex’s room with the parrot, watching the lava lamp. At around three in the morning I tucked the cage under my arm and crept downstairs, intending to take my […]

The answer isn't poetry, but rather language

- Richard Kenney

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