When She Flicks The Latch – Jessica Bell
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 12:55 — 2 Comments
For the fourth morning in a row, Elvira wakes up to see her mother, Dot, passed out on the couch. A bottle of Smirnoff lies on the floor on its side, open, pleading for Dot to wake up and take down its few remaining drops with her morning cigarette. Dot’s skeletal, feeble limbs are splayed in directions Elvira recognizes as also possible on dead, bruised victims she’s seen on Crime TV. Their Australian suburban house is small—just slightly bigger than a caravan, but at least it doesn’t have wheels—at least this means they’re not ‘trailer trash’—quite. Elvira passes Dot to […]
Elmwood – R. A. Allen
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 14:28 — 0 Comments
After I attained my BA in Political Science (with its emphasis on International Studies), a graduate’s egotism lead me, naively, to assume some government agency would rush forward with the offer of a Foreign Service posting. When none did, there followed a decade of drift. I worked in a bar and lived in the “tail section” of a subdivided airplane bungalow in grittily chic Midtown. I told myself and other disinterested listeners about my plans for graduate studies. Settling into a self-indulgent lifestyle, I was content to play volleyball and Frisbee in the park, get high with my similarly ambition-deferred […]
The Freedom Of Silence – James Brantingham
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 15:42 — 4 Comments
I tossed the remaining potato chips on the ground near my van. The sudden seagull stood guard nearby and said “quack quack.†That’s where this story started: I was intrigued by his opening observations. Seagulls are well known for their sleep shattering screeches and less for their more subtle quacks. This gray crumb beggar, this bi-avian polymultiomniphage definitely said, “quack quack.†He/she (I don’t know the difference, and I’m not sure they know without checking) quacked twice, just like a duck. In an effort at inter-species cordiality, I echoed, “quack quack†back to the seagull. Fortunately, no one overheard this […]
Insanity, Part One – Lilyyy Dawn
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 14:20 — 0 Comments
I like to have a task that keeps me busy. If I’m doing things then my mind doesn’t have any time to wander. When it does, it gets lost. It really scares me. I worry like the mother of a 4-year old who just got lost in the city. When I finally find my mind, I scream at it, smack it around. Any security turns the other way. A blind glaze comes over my eyes. I am paranoid blood will drip out my ears. He came to my house at nine in the morning asking for his winter hat. […]
Corina – Sean Walsh
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 14:31 — 0 Comments
Once school let out for the summer I started working the same shifts as Corina. We went to the same high school, but before I got the job at MJ’s Grocery I had never noticed her. She was going to be a senior next fall, a year ahead of me. One morning I was stocking bags of dog food in the pet care aisle when she came in for her shift. She was carrying a little purse with green flowers on it and her brown hair was in a ponytail. She walked up behind me. “Those aren’t too heavy for […]
I Want You – James Valvis
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 14:34 — 2 Comments
I want you, he said. Well, she said, I want you too. I want you now, he said. We have to wait, she said. I hate waiting, he said. Waiting is good for the soul, she said. Why is waiting good for the soul? he said. Because, she said. I really want you, he said. I really want you too, she said. We have a lot in common, he said. Yes, she said, we do. I feel like I’ve known you my whole life, he said. Me too, she said. What does that mean? he said. It’s your poetry I […]
Speculative – DeMisty Dawn Bellinger
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 13:57 — 3 Comments
“Sabrina ain’t here right now, but I know where she is. We can go get her. Want to come in for a minute, while I get ready? Throw my face on?â€Â Sara stepped aside and held the door open. She smiled at Jackson, her mother’s latest boyfriend. Jackson peeked into the house from the porch. He should have said no, should have said he’d call later, but he considered that Sara was old enough to know better, to know if she should or shouldn’t let people in their home. He stepped inside the back door, which opened into the kitchen. […]
Bone Trap – James Brantingham
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 14:01 — 1 Comment
I’ve lost track of time; it is meaningless to count the hours in the grave. The seasons sweep over the cemetery like spindrift over ocean waves. The sun bakes the brittle, skeletal grass each summer in turn. Leaves drop in autumn and vanish into the soil, food for the always hungry worm. Snow hides the gravesite each winter with great precision. No one has dropped flowers here since I was laid to what should have been rest. I remain here, a spirit caught in mid-stride, stuck to the bones that once carried me around the world. My foot is caught […]
Seattle Freeze – Kawika Guillermo
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 10:06 — 4 Comments
Ha Lin’s fingers rubbed my back, like she was trying to charm me again into that transparent plastic ball. My fur stood on end—not willful, it’s not like that—and she rubbed my head with her slender middle finger. Her green beaded bracelet, too matchy-matchy alongside that emerald green dress, hung just in my eyesight. I leaped into her cupped hand and she lifted me to her. Her pointy white nose stuck out from her curly hair and pressed against mine. From her white-rimmed eye-glasses, I could see my reflection kissing her. The irritating applause returned. Again and again, like an […]
Vegas Thunder – Lis Anna
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 13:46 — 5 Comments
One of Vegas Thunder’s earliest memories was of his mother, Adelle, standing in the front yard next to a gaggle of faded pink plastic flamingos waving her cigarette in the air, screaming the F-word at the mailman.
The answer isn't poetry, but rather language
- Richard Kenney
