OLIVES It’s always the springy stir plan, plant, hope slipped into earth-skin’s slopey pores (soon to be cellular mirrors) ………. glinty, green, spring flares ……….sprung from soft mossy pads as you slice on the chopping board This truth’s a bit musky for most ……….(like the unwashed uncle ……….invited for fettuccini champignon) “Tsk, tsk” or “snicker-snicker” […]
Babar Khan | THE YEAR THAT SLOVJ ŽIŽEK FARTED
THE YEAR THAT SLOVJ ŽIŽEK FARTED The bride was displayed in her seven dresses—and one more—to the women, who could not take their eyes off her. At last the bridegroom was summoned to the chamber where she sat enthroned. He rose slowly and with dignity from his divan; but in so doing, for he was […]
LILAC PAINTED WALLS AND BLACK FABRIC: A CONVERSATION WITH MONICA MCCLURE | INTERVIEW BY JAY WINSTON RITCHIE
LILAC PAINTED WALLS AND BLACK FABRIC: A CONVERSATION WITH MONICA MCCLURE | INTERVIEW BY JAY WINSTON RITCHIE
Jay Winston Ritchie: When did you start writing poetry?
Monica McClure: I always wrote poetry …. I remember covering my lilacpainted walls one day with black fabric and writing very disparate poems on the walls. One was an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem that was about the death of a friend, and not accepting that death. I loved the brazenness of it. It goes: “You have gone to feed the roses so elegant and curled but[…]Tom Howell | THE WISDOM OF CONFUSIONS
THE WISDOM OF CONFUSIONS One mustn’t confuse a scintilla with the Antilles. A scintilla is small The Antilles, also. But on a larger scale. A scintilla is closer to an iota, not to be confused with Antarctica. An iota is dotless. Antarctica is dotted with penguins. This is how you tell them apart. Iota […]
Crystal Hurdle | BUZZ
BUZZ Self-actualization and its derivatives were fun words Are you feeling self-actualized today? I’m so self-actualized I achieved self-actualization last night It could mean anything Libidinous silly virtuous Mockery just heavy enough to taste It webbed in your mouth Cotton candy Today, it’s empowerment When you allow your staff to take on your despised task […]
Joshua Levy | MONTREAL CHIC
MONTREAL CHIC Montreal looks like two chapped lips slightly parted on a map. Take that, Toronto! Take that, New York! But Italy —you chic leather boot from 40, 000 feet up— Goddamn you, Italy. You always have to look the best. Author’s Bio Joshua Levy’s work has appeared in Oxford University Press, Maisonneuve, Feathertale […]
Yuan Changming | FOUR FROGS
FOUR FROGS For the past half century, I have never seen A single frog in this city, not even in the whole country But there are four big-mouthed frogs leaping around Afar in a ricefield of my native village, four frogs Squatting under the rotten bridge on the way leading To an unknown town, four […]
Jill Jorgenson | SPIT
SPIT The coffee bean bit that must have clung to the mug’s rim, now aswish in the coffee with which my mouth’s awash (—like a beached fish ………. flung, returned to the surging ocean’s rising tide— ………. or perhaps like Pinocchio or Geppetto spat ………. from a Moby Dick’s rancid gastric insides—), the bean bit […]
Denise Raike | WORKING TITLE
WORKING TITLE Why, it got so bad that they began to laugh before I opened my mouth. —Dorothy Parker It’s not just the gin, I can assure you. An empty round of lives we bring to this blank page of a hotel, whining to be filled; the envy of every foyer and curtain club that […]