In Conversation

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Zygote In My Coffee (Her Breath) after Brian Fugett I suppose her breath was nice. I dreamt about her three times. She was watching tv all alone. She was sitting on a big pillow. The corner of the tv had what looked like a Post-it-note, and above her was a halo suspended over her head. …