Helicopter drops 100,000 poetry bookmarks over city as protest against war
Poetry rained from the skies on Saturday night in Berlin as 100,000 bookmarks printed with poems by 80 poets from Germany and Chile were …
hometown has been shutdown (or, rambling through a post-apocalyptic convenience store)
by DIY Danna
i’ve lived 6 months in this town
i’m half-baked right now
putting back items on the shelf
i don’t want or need – like 2 for 1 sunflower seeds
and that package of moist Betty Crocker brownies.
the invisible contract gave me more
time and money to spend in the purple zone
the land of soymilk and iPhonies.
(take a pic of my savage breast
you Hipstamatic closet racist!)
the anger boils in an unwatched pot
i forgot on the stove
in banal haste to not waste my time.
i walk with reusuable shopping bags
up and down the aisles of inconvenience.
not a care in the world,
the clerk in the backroom smokes.
a joint venture looms as he kisses his girlfriend
between cigarettes and plastic sheathed porno magazines
jerk offs don’t read to jerk off…
…to the beat of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”
i walk out – shattering to think of time wasted
in a ghost town formerly sponsored by petrochemicals
and reruns of reality shows i never watched.
i lost your new phone number before the bomb.
for t.j.
33
by Shawn Misener
Instead of careening into
a mid-life crisis I found
myself thinned out and
spiraling through a neon
pharmacy sign. You all
wished me well and I never
looked back. There were
aliens hovering over the
apartment complex and
strange men …
fainting in public when i had no place to go.
by cerebella
(i will save you only if your
veins are slight)
we were birdwatching between the oak trees
i saw two hawks have a fight that could happen
to us
so …
this is allen ginsberg
by thurston moore
this is allen ginsberg:
baby girl reaches for his face
his nose
glasses
anything
tries to stick her thumb in his mouth
a curious and favorite past-time
children everywhere
do it
…
MEMORY OF NOTHING
by Daniel De Culla
Listen:
Drag branches comeback
Across the forest floor:
Knowledge of the rough¡
At water’s edge
I gather some things up:
Memory of nothing.
We’ve the time to give the Babel Tower
A close reading.
Awful good, Tú
As Roy A. …
laugh and
by Joshua Wangler
laughed and
bit my fingernails until
my teeth ached – because
were you aware
sir
were you aware
ma’am
that this right
here lasts forever
that’s right longer than
high school and
that cast on your arm when it was broken in football …
The Empty Bed
by Aleathia Drehmer
What could Julia do? Bernard had been the love of her life, her every breath, her heartbeat, her sweat, her longing, her anger, her everything. She felt lost when …
DECISIONS DECISIONS
by ryan ritchie
I thought about walking to the liquor store
to buy a beer. and not just any beer.
one a them good tasting ones,
the kind that cost more than two dollars.
but the longer I debated, …
SHOOTING HOELSHER 696
by Deborah Reed
JOURNAL ENTRY, WEDNESDAY
I’m thinking of killing Hoelsher. With a gun. Shooting him right in the head. I don’t even care if I get caught–it would be worth it to get …
SHANE
by oscar smiles
came over today
told me how was it
told me ’bout pregnant canvases
and showed me some ooh lala pics
scars of resurrection one long spine stitch
klonopin claw NAH zeh pam
had a sweet palladium smell to it
stolen …
The Exploding Chair
by Ryan Quinn Flanagan
The dinner guests had
nothing bad to say
about the food
and drink
and congenial conversation
of an ever gracious host,
but the exploding chair
in the corner
was a little unsettling.
One woman screamed,
another choked on a broccoli
head,
most …
Graffiti
by Eric G. Müller
I was almost done spraying a blue, sickle moon on the concrete wall of the upper level of Senate House when I heard the shout – more like a wild, …
Tired
by Sarah Manguso
I’m tired of looking at this blonde’s well-formed ass
but she sure can weed a garden.
Does she know I dream about her white eyelashes?
Does she know all ambition has the same …
cool yellow blanket
by josiah redtalon
we have the coolest yellow blankets
and it was flying thru the air like
a fuck juice bullet
within the ship lies the controls to the shield
the swirl commences
the light was barely noticeable
diffused and …
Driving Through West Texas
by Larry D. Thomas
Locked for an hour on cruise control
without meeting another vehicle,
I’m hypnotized by yellow
stripes, whizzing by like arrows.
Sixty miles back, I missed the sign
posted by a Mobil Hopper
would’ve liked, the …
A Pitch of Sonic Ecstasy: Stuart Krimko’s “The Sweetness of Herbert”
by Adam Fitzgerald
I first encountered Stuart Krimko’s work at the 11th Street Bar Reading Series, one of the most distinguished in New York City. …
A Girl in Milwaukee and a Girl in Brooklyn
by Matt Cook
My wife is talking on the phone in Milwaukee
To her girlfriend in Brooklyn.
But, in the middle of all that, my wife has to go pee.
And …
Yonder
by rae armantrout
1
Anything cancels
everything out.
If each point
is a singularity,
thrusting all else
aside for good,
‘good’ takes the form
of a throng
of empty chairs.
Or it’s ants
swarming a bone.
2
I’m afraid
I don’t love
my mother
who’s dead
though I once –
what does ‘once’ mean? …
Black Magic Broke
by bill hughes
Some catacomb outside in a dry gray freeze
Is creeping so cold on stonefaced winds
Time has run itself white
Cigarettes are ringing off the wires
I can’t find my suitcase, it’s lost in a …
Torch Bearers
by John Bennett
I’ve made four lists.
The first contains the names of people who if they try to get up and make a speech at my wake (and it’s going to be one hell of …
“Don’t You Want Me?”: Isotopes and the Attainment of Happiness in Cyrus
by Clarissa Olivarez
As I was walking out of the theater after watching Cyrus, I heard people around me saying things like, “Oedipus Complex” and …
Call Numbers of the Wild
by jessica knauss
The cold night gnaws at her feet,
quickly moving
on the path
along the edge of the pond.
The stars twinkle like Morse code.
Her breath hangs in the air long after she is …
Boomerang
by emily canty
Gap-toothed and wide eyed, my teeth were worth bills
Until they stopped escaping and braces held them like convicts
My identity crisis broke into a wild fit of piercings and hair dye
And chased adolescence with …
TRIPTYCH
by scot siegel
1. Man
i am not a metaphor
but the instinct
that summons metaphor
2. Woman
i am not a metaphor
but the source
of all instinct
3. Child
i am part oak
part wildfire
only i can save myself
Share:
SHE DOESN’T WANT TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL
by r.a. reikki
but she called 911.
Her house was hard to find,
like looking for God in most churches.
And there was a Jesus on her wall,
depressed
and cliche,
a Jesus for conservatives,
looking …
BLUSH IN “CLASSIC PINK”
by nicole kuwik
I bought this makeup today,
which I used to wear when
we spent our
days in the murphy bed
under that stained
ceiling with the cat clawing
at our wrists
The smell of the blush
brought all of …
What we saw on our trip.
by chris bray
NOTES ON OUR TRAVELS
We got bored, me and the adult population, recently, and so went to look for our schoolteacher from back in school, who had been bald. …
Gushing thoughts
by ivan jenson
Everyone is Gaga for
telephones
and girls and guys
make simulated
love on the dance floor
and this freaking
is
freaking their
fathers and mothers
who are becoming
as frazzled as
the hair bands
of their youth
so they simply
cozy up by
fake fires
and read Nooks
and …
Gwendolyn Fluxed
by matt ronquillo
My friends wanted to go out dancing but I was like, “Flux you,” because I was tired from traveling, but they showed up at my apartment at the downtown high rise anyway. …
Drugs
by mary campbell
Coffee: the tightening at the heart,
The wreath of ice, like thorns
Arranged there to give pleasure,
The interpenetration of the nerves
And mind, until thought
Bites at your breast — keen lover
Or gourmand to a sentient peach.
A …
Moloch
by george buchanan
this is the modern
moloch
the exit 13 off ramp
decorated with
smoke stacks that belch out
fumes from god knows
where and god knows
what we did to build it
the masses pour out
to pilgrimage in Newark
behold
the signs that weep …
A Pitch of Sonic Ecstasy: Stuart Krimko’s “The Sweetness of Herbert”
by Adam Fitzgerald
I first encountered Stuart Krimko’s work at the 11th Street Bar Reading Series, one of the most distinguished in New York City. …
“Don’t You Want Me?”: Isotopes and the Attainment of Happiness in Cyrus
by Clarissa Olivarez
As I was walking out of the theater after watching Cyrus, I heard people around me saying things like, “Oedipus Complex” and …
There’s one version of the narrative behind these recordings that’s romantic but also basically true: that they represent an incredible victory of the artist’s spirit. Daniel Johnston was a young man in …
The Empty Bed
by Aleathia Drehmer
What could Julia do? Bernard had been the love of her life, her every breath, her heartbeat, her sweat, her longing, her anger, her everything. She felt lost when …
