In Conversation

For the Duration  by Heather Flescher from Collapse Press Heather Flescher’s For the Duration is a collection that refuses distance. It is not content to be admired from afar as an exercise in craft alone; it insists on intimacy. Through a blend of narrative poetry, memoir, prose-poems, and personal reflection, Flescher creates a work that …

May God Grant Us the Blessings of a Cheap Used Car The bus comes when it wants. If it does. Today, it zips by me as I stand on the curb, waving my hands, while the rain floods my shoes. I’m late for work. Or will be. Didn’t bring an umbrella. 20 minutes ago, the …

Red Shoes This is what happens The morning after you die Your wife has been up all night crying Then she calls the caregiver And he and she dress you In the tuxedo tee-shirt you loved And the bright red sneakers that you also loved (I hear that the angels often want to wear them) …

the pizza delivery guy from elegant pizza seems concerned about me on a friday evening and i don’t have the heart to tell him that i’ve been flirting with the sicilian pizza at vesuvio’s the pepperoni from bay ridge’s best that sometimes i get a craving for won tons and egg rolls from lucky chinese …

They Control Your Image We were called to the middle of the plant for an impromptu meeting. I was afraid it was going to devolve into another lecture on bathroom breaks. Management hates it when anybody poops on the clock. Despite there being more video surveillance cameras than a PornHub taxi trained on the bathroom …

Muzzle There is a key in my throat but it belongs to someone else. When I try to speak the sound comes out like a chair dragged slowly across the floor of an empty church. They say you should be grateful. So I nod. The ceiling leaks pennies. The walls have ears that whisper almost …

BRITTLE ENOUGH TO SHATTER I can feel the strain in my weakened muscles, the crunchy, broken cartilage marinated in the blood and sinew of my throbbing left shoulder— I was born to fall apart, to make bad choices against the advice of medical professionals, bad choices who haunt me now that I’m middle aged and …

transition goals i will question every label i use and call it productive i will slap an intrusive thought on my todo list and i will walk through the botanical garden with you and like the humble venus fly trap i am small and inflamed and have only managed to grow in an obscure red …

Mister Joe’s Pirates by Karl Koweski (Roadside Press) Karl Koweski’s Mister Joe’s Pirates is an unapologetically profane, funny, and unexpectedly heartfelt novel that finds surprising humanity in the fading industrial landscape of Northwest Indiana. At first glance, it appears to be a crude comedy about washed-up barflies coaching a hopeless Little League team. By the …

Old Stories of a Young God In the Old Testament (so it says, & so they always say) God was a wrathful god a vengeful god a needy god, who demanded obedience demanded worship baiting & punishing with apple bobbing banishing & flooding killing the first born, bleeding rivers of blood, raining frogs & testing …