|
|
Listen to a reading of “Double Homicide” by Emil Ostrovski.
She said not to wait up, that she’d probably crash with her sister. The next morning she is headline news. At the police station, on an uncomfortable chair. “We got the son-of-a-bitch,” they say. “He’ll be tried for double homicide. Once we get the report from her doctor. That’s what’ll happen.” Home to crushing quiet, you look up the definition of homicide over and over, waiting for it to change. Also: rape. Then: anger. Pain. Loss. Death. Life. Grief.
» Continue reading Double Homicide by Emil Ostrovski…
Listen to a reading of “Smalling” by Nick Stokes.
The numbers on the alarm clock are too large. You need two hands to hold the coffee mug. You can’t pee over the toilet’s lip while standing. Pee puddles warmly on the linoleum. You can’t pick up your children to kiss them good morning and when you walk them to the bus stop it takes an unforgivable number of steps. As you re-enter your house through the dog door you remember that your children giggled as they swung you between them and after you almost fell there was a strange comfort
» Continue reading Smalling by Nick Stokes…
Listen to a reading of “turtle shell” by Mark Waclawiak.
I made a turtle shell with my fingers, taping cardboard scraps together, ripping grass out of the ground and rubbing the blades against the cardboard so the color would be honest and the smell pleasant, as if the turtle spent his days roaming through meadows, eating little treats buried in the dirt and licking dew from the blades every morning.
About the author:
Mark Waclawiak is a student at the University of Texas-Austin and an intern at The Believer. His poetry has appeared in elimae and ZOUCH.
Listen to a reading of “Armored” by Hobie Anthony.
I watch the things they do around midnight while I drink my chamomile tea. I turn off the light in my study to watch them before I seduce my partner. They weld iron to other iron, they extract machine parts from machines, tubes and wires dangle from their hands, a drip of oily gore. They keep their welding goggles on the whole time and their black aprons hide strong bodies. Men and women with sweaty, sooty faces move without speaking, a ballet of grunt and gesture.
Hobie Anthony
About the
» Continue reading Armored by Hobie Anthony…
Listen to a reading of “The Argument is Odin, God of War & Poetry” by Dustin Luke Nelson.
In no other religion or mythology do the two intersect under a single deity’s domain, with the exception of monotheistic religions where the god is the god of all things.1 Hoarder of all our favorite intangibles. Does this give the poet a role as more than an honorary thinker. Does Odin value both war and poetry equally, and for that matter knowledge, of which it is also a god. Maybe it lists the hanged before poetry and knowledge, because the hanged
» Continue reading The Argument is Odin, God of War & Poetry by Dustin Luke Nelson…
Listen to a reading of “Black tie” by Kelly Michael.
Reopen your mouth there were a lot of girls swooned by your tongue once
now they just spill drinks and cry because of what happened to you
when you decided no not tonight not in this city again
Kelly Michael
About the author:
Kelly Michael is a writer and he lives in Hamilton, Ontario. He was once an undergraduate sociology student at the University of Toronto and now he is not an undergraduate sociology student at the University of Toronto. He thinks knitting would be a useful skill to have.
» Continue reading Black tie by Kelly Michael…
Listen to a reading of “Russian Women Stuff” by Leesa Cross-Smith.
After Charlie and I broke up, he dated two Russian women. When we got back together, I said something to him about how he wore those same camouflage pants all of the time, the same paint-splattered white v-neck shirts. What I meant was: don’t think I’ve forgotten that I told you I thought Russian women were beautiful and that if I was a lesbian I’d want to fall in love with one. Charlie shrugged and said he didn’t have any other shirts so I said let’s go buy you
» Continue reading Russian Women Stuff by Leesa Cross-Smith…
Listen to a reading of “La Cruda” by Brian Tibbetts.
Inspired? Hardly.
Another evening. Another ode to Bourbon.
It’s played out.
I broke To one bar. Wild Turkey.
And another, Pabst Blue Ribbon.
And finished another night With a chili-cheese-dog.
And I don’t have to tell you The rest.
Brian Tibbetts
About the author:
Brian Tibbetts is a writer, musician, print-maker and painter, currently living and working in Portland, Oregon. His writing has appeared in Unshod Quills, Gobshite Quarterly and Housefire. He is currently constructing a website regarding all of his various pursuits: briantibbetts.com
» Continue reading La Cruda by Brian Tibbetts…
Listen to a reading of “Buzzard” by Ben Drinen.
I coasted down the dirt road on my piece of shit dirt bike. The dirt road was brown. The pebbles in the dust made my bike bounce. There was a little hill by the dirt road. It was mostly dirt and rocks. There was some scrub brush growing here and there. I looked up at the sky. I saw the remnants of a fading jet stream. I saw some movement in the scrub brush. I hit the footbrakes. I skidded in a circle. I approached the bush cautiously. Behind the
» Continue reading Buzzard by Ben Drinen…
Listen to a reading of “Out at Shellmound” by William Lusk Coppage.
Before Grandpa died he showed me his scars from fighting demons, then how he’d wrestled one—jumping up and down like the congregation over in Itta Bena when the spirit washes over them. “They almost got me good,” he said, holding his arms out. His wrists chewed up from their teeth. “I got away but they’ll be back. They’re coming back for you.” He made me fear those demons in a way that if I ever saw them, I would have the courage to fight back. The night
» Continue reading Out at Shellmound by William Lusk Coppage…
|
