by Jason Graff There’s still time before lunch, so I tuck the day-old bagel back into the bag. Back when Randolph McLeigh owned the bakery, he gave away day-olds. I hate to see such a nice young man get a ticket. More so than the Irish fellow. I pinch a couple dimes from my change … Continue reading Playing Favorites
by Jason Graff Dorothy Parker was funny in a cruel way which I think made us like her all the more, especially mother, who saw herself as some gutsy, wise, old truth teller of the old school. Now it’s really easy to see she was just mean and unhappy, possibly with us; definitely with father … Continue reading Dorothy Parker
Meaning, Meaning It All Falls Apart & You’re brushing your teeth in the midst of one of those mornings that can only be described as ennui. You rinse your mouth without thinking and try to speak the sharp dark nothing that creeps in the corners of the room where it forms a mosaic arranged in the … Continue reading Two Poems by Eric Stiefel
by Grace Yannotta The dog sits in the corner of the room. She looks like one of those pharaoh dogs, Suze thinks, the lithe golden body, the sharp ears, the keen dark eyes. The ones that line the tombs of the olden kings. The protectors. She knows she’s not supposed to stare, the poor thing … Continue reading Bau
Sailors just grabbed what they could — a Mickey Mouse teddy bear my sister had since she was little — before the ship broke apart in nightmarish purple seas, the wind wailing as if the wails might actually be expressing something, anguish or fear or fratricidal rage, while back on shore, graves vomited up the dead, and, farther inland, … Continue reading Emily by Howie Good
plastic palm tree shades the pink wall envelopes of blue and your bite it’s crocodile lust on me like a fever my oiled eyes wrapped around your voice these limbs/the ceiling and the room gets more liquid and we get more liquid until we’re wetter than the rain. & & Trevor Plate Trevor Plate spent … Continue reading Gutter by Trevor Plate
by Trevor Plate Concrete and metaland sky breathing heavyThe mountains beyondthemselves in the distanceSun giving up tothe demon electricScent of a humanthis flight of a lifetimeTelling the storiesof heroes and villainsPrecious and potentthe palm of an instantNight starts its breakingThese hearts are all breaking out here Smelling the fish inthe lingering ozoneExhaust and needlesolfactory highwaysRemember the … Continue reading Airplanes Move Sideways
Nemesis People admire a sense of industry / a spirited sort of communism / how the labyrinth tenants toil away over early blooms / tufted legs weighted with sun dust / convening in their planet in service of the one true queen / everyone admires their golden down / but wasps are paper makers in … Continue reading Two Poems by Rita Mookerjee
EMILY AS THE SECOND WINTER I pressed the bleakness of Ohioto my face & I breathed so deeplythat I swallowed old wounds to create new wounds& Emily, she watched all of this beneath a blanket she made,next to a fire she started. I, too often, force myselfto experience all of Ohio all of the time. … Continue reading Three Poems by Darren Demare
by Trista Hurley-Waxali When he said we were moving in, I wasn’t sure what he meant. Most of our friends were demolishing and then rebuilding, so it wasn’t so much as moving in but entering a perfectly designed space. At least, that was the promise that architects have when they competed like football teams for the … Continue reading Collecting
Dream Noir 