Book Warm shelling a city library during a war and burning all the books in it you could call that a crime because books hold the stories of the people who wrote them and by destroying the books you are erasing the history of those people but the real crime is to keep the war …
Category: In Conversation
May 10
Hospice by Jason Fisk
Hospice Hospice has a pamphlet that maps out the end-of-life stages where the pathway to death can be followed like a roadmap That both fascinated me and brought me comfort but I could never figure out why It had a community feel to it Something we all do in the same way but I couldn’t …
May 10
Your Pale Gray Eyes by Litsa Dremousis
Your Pale Gray Eyes On this awful, bathrobe morning, I wonder what you look like now. Could your ashes fit into my coffee mug? How about our bowl on the dish rack? The one I bogarted the popcorn from curled up watching “Mad Men” when you got pissed I listed all the ways I’d fuck …
May 09
Bombs Bringing Us Together by Shannon O’Connor
Bombs Bringing Us Together If the end of the world comes, there won’t be anything I can do except stand on the porch and listen to the Grackles gulp their last song, hoping that on the next try, humanity will succeed, a rose without any thorns, kindness will be what truly matters. If the end …
May 09
We Survive by Jess Bryant
We Survive We are exhausted, war torn and weather beaten survivors We have been starving on the streets and a stranger in our own homes We’re the Dudeists that still attend church 3 times a year to make their mother in law smile We are the world’s poets and back alley artists whose brilliance will …
May 08
It Took A Near-Death Experience, Or Two… by Bradford Middleton
IT TOOK A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE, OR TWO… All those mornings lost To the bewilderment & Madness & the whole god-damn Sadness of all those Hungover mornings that would Ravage the day into a nothing, A nothing But pain But dry heaving But thinking & dreaming of Death, the ultimate cleanser, Kind of day. Those days …
May 07
Richard Modiano reviews John O’Kane’s The Accidental Jesus
John O’Kane’s The Accidental Jesus is a thought-provoking and highly engaging novel that deftly blends satire, social critique, and spiritual exploration. O’Kane introduces us to a protagonist whose unexpected rise as a modern-day messiah figure sheds light on the complexities of contemporary society. Through sharp, often humorous dialogue, and a rich tapestry of characters, O’Kane …
May 06
THE POLISH HAMMER POETRY CORNER: Everybody Else is Stacking Cash, So Why Ain’t I? by Karl Koweski
Everybody Else is Stacking Cash, So Why Ain’t I? How much money you got stashed in your bank account? What’s your 401K looking like? Do you have at least four months’ salary put back in savings in case you lose your job? These are the sort of questions my wife bombards …
May 05
2 poems by James Duncan
Sky Blue Eggshells everything I hear out the window will outlive me,the birds giving birth to birds giving birth to birds dead tendrils of houseplant lie in piles on the floorcoiling snakes of yesterday the dust of tomorrow a hammering echoes in the neighborhood distanceso I close the window but still hear the soft intrusion …
May 04
The Unluckiest Man Alive by Gregory Smith
The Unluckiest Man Alive “Yet another souvenir for the box,” Wally mumbled to himself, gazing at his right shoe. Wally felt the hole in the sole. The discarded shoe would join his wristwatch that had stopped keeping time, his burnt Park Ranger hat and his ripped gray trousers in the box of “shocking” memorabilia he …