throwing milestones at the open road
misener @ June 28, 2007 # 6 Comments
This Is No Freakshow
By Shawn Misener
This is awful, but not awful enough.
A messy wound you could fit a canyon into
leaking clear juicy drops to the white sands.
You charged us five dollars for this?
I could’ve seen much worse for free
on my parents ultramodern laptop/fax/phone/espresso machine.
I could’ve ventured into the caves under the desert
and emerged with […]
More on page 184
and i just sat there… for awhile
Editor @ June 27, 2007 # 3 Comments
The Woman Who Loves Maps
By Lyn Lifshin
aches for the old
ones, dusky as an
abandoned ghost town
where the wooden
pier is driftwood.
She doesn’t want
longitudes and
latitudes, favors
roads mutable as
a bracelet made
of sand she can
write an SOS in to
the wind. She dreams
of islands, magical
as the fingers of
the concert pianist,
each with its own
intelligence and
breath. She wants
the light to be what
photographers long
for, […]
More on page 183
fortune cookie, you’re so sweet
Editor @ June 26, 2007 # One Comment
How to Homebrew
By Gavin S. Lambert
I learned to ride, at age four,
On a stolen bike. It was spray-
Painted policeman blue, and, to me,
The sweetest thing on two wheels.
A neighbor boy, about nineteen,
Named Duper, had given it to me.
He’d pushed it up to the opened front
Door and yelled in “Stephen, I got somethin’
For […]
More on page 180
i love you haggard… and umm… halloo
papazulu @ June 25, 2007 # One Comment
Adventures of Pinky Dugg: Magnum Flinch
By ?
Little pinky Dugg crept weely along and saw the old man on his back porch skinning some animal, pulling and twisting away the skin and with great horror pinky suddenly noticed it was sniffy, sniffy Digg, sniffy his very own sniffy. Pinky trembled greatly (more out of grief […]
More on page 176
i really don’t wanna be at work today…
Elizabeth Cortez-Neavel @ June 24, 2007 # 12 Comments
You, I
By Elizabeth Cortez-Neavel
What
makes me come and
what makes
me stay
and.
I like
my body
when it is with your
body
and.
You want
and. I want
and we wanted
and the books
were all
she could almost bear
annexes of books
and Boston spring summers
with you t e a s i n g
[…]
More on page 131
bloom where you are planted… ?
Editor @ June 23, 2007 # 2 Comments
THE GIRL IN THE WHITE MERCEDES
By Joseph Goosey
Facing extinction of the worst
nature
some dinosaurs in the back yard
said
‘No mas’.
I am not up, not awake
til the
sound of a once great metropolis
begging at the hands
of a
wrecking ball
is heard outside my
window
some things do not
pan out
the way the construction of
Greece
did
and this I understand
but what gets to me is the
girl
who […]
More on page 163
the submerged and ancient cough
misener @ June 22, 2007 # 6 Comments
trompe l’oeil
By Shawn Misener
Dropped into France with a cosmic vacuous THUD, slowly reaching to awareness to find an old friend married to an asshole. Their baby in hand, glasses knocked off from the distracted head, there is no money in the wallet and no wallet in the pocket. Unable to find a phone to call […]
More on page 168
and the crepe myrtles cry
JetsetPete @ June 20, 2007 # 3 Comments
The First Love Poem I’ve Ever Actually Meant
by Peter Funk
In my fortieth year
my head becomes a pin cushion
for a constantly evolving army
of bad ideas and circular regrets,
an emotional petri dish growing
dusty grey-green wisps of fuzz
that make me gag or, at best,
sneeze inconsolably.
No medicinal value at all.
My nights are spent trying to sleep
on the dance floor […]
More on page 173
shedding pure red summer
Quasimofo @ June 18, 2007 # 9 Comments
The Quantum Constant of a Fracas
By Quasimofo
1Ap particle x Aq particle= quarrel from a squabble in a barrel
when someone gets a bug up their butt, the exterminator is not the one to call..
Just hall ass and don’t do what i think you’re thinking with that roach motel..
Grope thru the fogger […]
More on page 172
ashtrays and wine rings
diydanna @ June 16, 2007 # One Comment
moonlight with father o’sullivan
By DIY Danna
After you kiss my neck goodbye tonight
the toilet seat impregnates me with twin thoughts
of a sailboat in the moonlight and you - and
treading sheets super-soaked with our love sweat.
We’re counting down the eye-drops to dilate
the perfect vision of us dancing four years ago
before I knew you were sorry
for always being […]
More on page 148