by Michael Grover “Bread and Circuses” (or bread and games) (from Latin: panem et circenses) is a metaphor for a superficial means of appeasement. It was the basic Roman formula for the well-being of the population, and hence a political strategy unto itself. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the …
Category Archive: Issue #1 – Moral Panic
Aug 15
Black Kite Poems #2
by Michael Grover Made a little extra money over the weekend So today it is iced coffee & veggie pie Two people at the bar meet She sizes him up Where do you live He lives up the street It’s a safe part So the next inevitable question What do you do He works against …
Aug 15
Political Poem (If It Doesn’t Have A Soul)
by Michael Grover In the name of freedom They spread oppression People fight for freedom People die for freedom As if it were more than a word A thought someone put in their head Maybe they just needed a job Because the future looks bleak I remember the recruiting billboards in West Philly Besides those …
Aug 15
economics for bystanders
by Carl Miller Daniels tie-dye the corrosive elements of society. bring them down with big hay-filled barns. the kind of hay that’s golden yellow, with threads of silver and streaks of rubicon, after caesar crossed that goddamn river. social norms and balances are something worth preserving, keeping the youth on the right track, make-shift solutions …
Aug 15
communications satellite
by Carl Miller Daniels knuckles crackling and toes tingling, the sexy naked athletic big-dicked teenage boy lifted a big bale of hay from a stack in the barn and tossed that bale of hay against the wall. it hit with a thud and fell onto the floor. “not bad,” the sexy naked athletic big-dicked teenage …
Aug 15
Make it Feel True
by Misti Rainwater-Lites Write me and tell me I am fierce with reality I am star strong and night deep and I don’t have to keep all these books and lipsticks and ironic t-shirts to be interesting. Write me and tell me I am so pretty in the eye so sweet in the song you …
Aug 15
Daily Bread
by Misti Rainwater-Lites I’m fat in my purple shower cap and leopard print gown drinking hot coffee from a California mug. I’m such a cliche, a middle-aged woman who gave too much to love and sits on her ass staring forty in the face, wretched with self-loathing and regret. I should not have flashed those …
Aug 15
Two sides
by Josh Olsen “Sometimes,” my grandfather hesitantly confessed from his bed, “I wonder if we made the right choice keeping you away from your father.” But my grandmother quickly interjected, “Of course we made the right choice!” and that was the end of the conversation. I wasn’t exactly shocked by what my grandfather had stated. …
Aug 15
Soft
by Josh Olsen A dog was lying in the middle of 96. A dead dog. Black and white. Shaggy. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen a dead dog. Hell, it wasn’t even the first time I’d seen a dead dog on that very same strip of highway. But this time the shock of it …
Aug 15
Under Douche Bag
by Shali Nicholas List the guy who tosses his soda can out of the car on the freeway. List the guy who tosses his beer can out of the car on the freeway. List artists who randomly slap paint globs on canvas and then charge $300 for it. List Andy Warhol. List the guy who …