by Matthew Pasquarello This is not the worst But certainly not the best The woman smells Of everything that is not a woman Of sweat and whiskey Of gun smoke and gunpowder Of volcanoes and peer pressure Of fire and brimstone Of intelligence and idiocy Of cigarettes and candy canes Of adolescence and adulthood, Senior …
Sep 15
Unshaved
by Josh Olsen The hangover was almost more than I could stand. I hadn’t vomited yet, but my body was wrenched with pain and I constantly felt like I was on the brink of shitting in my pants and, to top it all off, a woman was standing less than ten feet in front of …
Sep 15
Bermuda Locket
by Karley De la Filth Caught breathless. There was no other way to describe the situation. He had seen the warning signs: that glaze, that glitch in her eyes, that crazy glimmer. It’s not that he had ignored the foreshadowing, it’s that he saw these things bursting out of her petite frame and they had …
Sep 15
These Little Rituals
by Anneliese Mackintosh We’re not so different, you and I. We like to think we are, but we’re not. You with your Y chromosome, your love of music, of God. And me with my books and my atheism and my cunt. I’m the one that buys the erotica. The ancient pictures of men upon men, …
Sep 15
The Last Man On Earth
by Frank Walsh Looks like I am the last man on Earth as if an atom bomb dropped not here but over New York maybe I’m the only one left until of course wandering the vacant streets and littered plazas for some can goods I discover, as the apocalyptic yarn went, the last woman scantily …
Sep 15
Love In the Warzones of the Wild
by Bud Smith when all else fails I will be good no more flip flopping, dragging along, eating dust, dying slowly—pretending to like it unvoided checks, power pills invincible bubblegum, pink frosting fake coins, dotted lines, ripped maps, traffic signs—hope you slept well no, I don’t sleep at all ignored a long time at everydoor …
Sep 15
The Great Fascist Bookfair (tour of amerika)
by Frankie Metro under the occidental, protective stare coming from a hole that utility giants left for water lines & undocumented spy reports, I know where the exact run off from the rain gutters makes noise, while slumping against the chicken wire- displaced Austin novelists drown out the unusually hot summers soaked in Triple Sec …
Sep 15
The Great Fascist Bookfair (euro-tour)
by Frankie Metro you look at me like I’m a murderer w/ your nazi eyes glancing in between the plot against America or some phillip roth s&m grab-ass game that ultimately ends w/ Bolaño’s general nailed to a cross, & his genitals flapping in a rumanian wind until the russians invade w/ the forked end …
Sep 15
Not Wanting To Offend, Not.
by Julia Coleman I often find myself wanting to offend the religious, the sensitive, and those who just need to be everybody’s best fucking, smiley faced friend. I find I want to smack their dopey faces with words like Feminism, Cunny, or incredulous lines like ‘God? What are you stoooopid?’ The ‘happily’ married shit they …
Sep 15
Choose Life…
by Julia Coleman I once had a child sucked from my womb Doctors and other such notables with not a womb among them fixed me properly and I never spoke of nor cared to remember much that small bunch of cells though I was divided from the others alike who it seemed never stood upright …