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Forecast is being serialized semiweekly across 42 web sites. For a full list of participants and links to live chapters, please visit www.shyascanlon.com/forecast. Also, FORECAST found a home at Flatmancrooked and will be released in hardcover in Spring, 2010. Chapter 35 is available at PANK Magazine and Chapter 37 is available at 3:AM Magazine.
Helen asked for a moment to wander.
“It’s your trip,” Blain said, after looking at his watch. “But we’ve gotta get going soon if we’re going to meet up with Busy at your friend Asseem’s place.”
“Right,” Helen said. “Of course.”
“Assuming you picked the right
» Continue reading Forecast: Chapter 36 by Shya Scanlon…
Paperback: 112 pages Graywolf Press (October 27, 2009) ISBN-10: 1555975437 ISBN-13: 978-1555975432
Review by John Madera
With all kinds of worthless chit chatting and twitter jibber jabbering going on, The Delicacy and Strength is less a reminder that epistolary literature is a lost art, but more a revelation that its possibilities are still available, if one avails his- or herself to it at all. Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright met only two times, the first time at a writers conference in Michigan and the second in a New York City hospital where Wright lay dying of cancer. Between these
» Continue reading The Delicacy and Strength of Lace: Letters Between Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright…
Listen to a podcast of Ryan Ridge’s “After Fall.”
The stop sign at the lip of the cul-de-sac had been graffitied. It read: Don’t Stop. So we didn’t. We continued past burnt out sedans, the remains of SUVs, and on to the former Dodge City country club. There was smoke in the air and the evening sky looked dead. Behind the pro shop, Uncle Lester pissed next to a busted Coke machine while I hot-wired a golf cart. We rode down the overgrown fairways, through the sand-less sand traps, over the dead greens. On the back nine we came to
» Continue reading After Fall by Ryan Ridge…
Rorschach Blood
Five fingers one to three thru five
Dipping into the darkness
It hangs on the pads, filling my prints
Palmreader couldn’t predict such happenings
This paper smudged with surrounding light
Rorschach bloods and my silence speaks too loud
This mortar and bone office with frames &
Cush leather chains onto my belt
Tighter n tighter I press into the cushion
Welting my waistline
Intent on those fingers
Dilating pupils
Pinpoints of refraction from spectacles
Perked on hook nose
A perfect disguise for acceptance
» Continue reading Two Poems by John Sweet…
We are happy to introduce Martha Clarkson as Word Riot’s new Poetry Editor. –WR STAFF
How She Described Her Ex-Husband When the Police Called
He’s the man who wants to live on Park Place but can only afford Virginia, the Pennsylvania line running through his backyard, fast as a chance.
He’s the hat who owes a luxury tax.
He’s a no-trump bid without all the aces. A queen finesse,eight ever, nine never, that fails to fallinto the dummy just right.
He’s down a trick.
Just call him Colonel Mustard, pinning Miss Scarlett against the conservatory wall but rubbing noses (literally)
» Continue reading Three Poems by Martha Clarkson…
Listen to a podcast of Rob Bass’ “The End.”
And they all lived happily ever after, the ferry cleared the bridge before it was lowered and Haruki’s dragcycle outraced the Dirtbike Vandals, and Tom finally worked up the courage to confess his love for Heather, and Jack learned to live in the woods in harmony with all the other creatures of the forest and in time the bear became the best friend that he had ever known, and the faceless conglomerate was prevented from buying up all of Mac’s land, so that his family would be able to stay for
» Continue reading The End by Rob Bass…
WHATEVER YOU DO,
don’t go out to dinner with two white haired old ladies, your mom and your aunt who you haven’t seen in ten years. Don’t listen to them as they rave about the new restaurant in the mall where the children run feral and a clown lurks in the corner painting pictures and the bartender has acne. Jesus, the vegetables will be juiceless and cold, there will be a pile of pepper on the steak, your fries will sit in the tanning-window like the fingers of a Miami snowbird. The onion rings will be baby-oil greasy, the
» Continue reading Two Poems by Mather Schneider…
Review by Casey Quinn
Most people spend their lives really trying to understand the delicate balance of what makes a relationship work. They meet people, they date, some get married, some don’t and all the while they are learning from each interaction a little more about the opposite sex. Learning a little bit about themselves. What makes them tick, what they like and dislike, who is the right person and how they can tell.
In Robin Stratton’s chapbook, Dealing with Men (ISBN 0-9753211-3-7), she takes the reader on a journey of various interactions and displays the results of what happens
» Continue reading Dealing with Men by Robin Stratton…
November 2009 marks an end of an era at Word Riot: Poetry Editor Charles P. Ries is bidding us farewell. We are incredibly grateful for the countless hours Charles has devoted to the magazine and the discerning eye he took to submissions. He will be missed.
Charles has two books of poetry coming out in early 2010: Girl Friend & Other Mysteries of Love that will be published by Alternating Current Press, Leah Angstman, Editor. And I’d Rather Be Mexican that will be published by Cervena Barva Press, Gloria Mindock, Editor. The following poems will appear in these two books.
» Continue reading Seven Poems by Charles P. Ries…
but I am not so miraculous
they are running
like black bile
bruised from the nose
of the state
dripping into streets
America’s pastimes
or past -
the same shit panic dead bodies
on them now
as then
and yes, Christ is among them.
for 37 cents worth of gas
he called me “angel”
at Wal-Mart.
I wanted to kiss
his face but not taste
his dirt.
saviors are like that
wearing the grime of
human souls on their t-shirts
thanking us anyway.
rewind.
pan in on holding tank
of Negro bodies -
make sure you see the smell
» Continue reading Two Poems by Mia Wright…
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