Jan 24
Definition I admit the woman in my dream last night was, at best, a composite, sharing personality traits with several past lovers: a skeptical nature, a growing detachment from whatever this thing was. Climbing the stairs I saw the roof collapse— she disappeared through the exit, free falling upwards, a motion not unlike flying. Later …
Jan 23
Carnage Upon Innocence -Or- America, You Make Me Cry As we collectively sigh, quoting George Orwell on social media on a Thursday afternoon in North America seems to be the equivalent of a well-tossed fart from the cupped hand of a sibling, vying for attention before the real fight starts. Good for a couple laughs, …
Jan 22
If my kids were named for the places they were conceived: 1. White Castle Drive-Thru 2. 24 Hour Laundromat 3. Family Express Pump 7 4. 6 West Nurses Station 5. Popcorn Fest Port-a-Potty 6. Smoke Break During AA Meeting 7. Neighbor’s Slip-n-Slide 8. Uncle Fred’s Wake Tim Murray (b. 1977) was conceived, born, raised, and resides …
Jan 21
Earth Is a Strange Planet Earth is a strange planet, where a prick can be mayor, governor, congressman, senator, president, or king. The worker will be tossed away, his/her back bent out of shape, his/her finger, each one of them, bent out of shape as well, with no doctor able to put it all back …
Jan 20
Big Az Sammiches It’s a sad fact of factory life that eventually you find yourself eating a Big Az sammich out of the vending machine. For me, in this instance, it was a Big Az country fried chicken sammich I subjected myself to. It was the first break of the day. I was hungrier than …
Jan 19
The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika Wurth Flatiron Books, $18.18 Review by Zack Kopp In Erika Wurth’s The Haunting of Room 904 by, a Native American paranormal detective investigates the mystery of room 904 in Denver’s famous Brown (Palace) Hotel, where her own sister committed suicide, most recent in a line of women to …
Jan 18
Unseen Men in Unseen Vans In the heat-wave streets of domestic “war zones” where bodegas hum and children skip rope between potholes and broken English dreams, they came – unmarked like a reprise of a 20th century nightmare scene. Masks, protective vests, guns drawn, ICE badges stitched into plain clothes, not even the judges recognize …
Jan 17
first published in the Scumrag by Scumbag Press in the UK This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Rhea Melina’s Found Confetti (Carbonation Press, 2024) “I beg of you to not get me wrong, But you will” I met Rhea Melina on Telegraph in Oakland, at a craft beer and bottle shop where we …
Jan 16
The Great Flood of ‘25 I’m not leaving I’m just going to watch the rain Besides there are no more trains to catch Except for the occasional rental car that’ll lead you to A warm room in a strange deserted city surrounded by Words and friends and bad food and laughter All of which conspire …
Jan 15
Letters That Breathe Fire by Margaret Randall, New Village Press Letters That Breathe Fire is not merely a book of correspondence; it is a living archive of how literature once moved through the world—slowly, stubbornly, and with moral urgency. Drawn from the letter sections of El Corno Emplumado / The Plumed Horn, one of the …
