A bee nearly killed me. Fourteen years of shots I got! It’s something special about me, my allergies: Peppermint. Bees. Silk. The odd flower. . . The negligee leapt from the ledge. The bouquet came to grief beside the recycling. So much you gave me I couldn’t use. “‘Special’?” You were amused. Naked, sneezing, rubbing […]
Contributors 68
Sally Dawidoff: Self-Portrait Astride A Zamboni ®
The beer’s flowing, and, high in the driver’s seat of an ice resurfacing machine, I’m tipsy in tea-length chiffon. I’m tired of being good. I shall embark on a pattern of mild infractions. I shall give out my sought-after phone number— perhaps to that strapping groomsman I spied from the car as the wedding party […]
Susan Briante: UNQUIET
Vertex of the Chrysler Building, pray for me; linemen, bartenders, muses, pray for me; crow covered highway, sing for me; over the bridge of a Washburn 6-string, lay me; crazed molecule! terse atom! play for me; with the moans of forklifts, speak for me; in satin, sable, calico, adorn me; squat propane containers of Bayonne, […]
Aaron Balkan: For the Monumental Stockbroker in Liberty Park, Manhattan
A man opens his briefcase to double check, and a wind lifts the papers out of his lap, tossing them over his head like hovering sea birds. It whips a newspaper at him, then flyers torn from lampposts, plastic bags, a tablecloth from an outdoor café— more paper covers his feet and the bench and […]
Lauren Acampora: Tree Costume
Simpering along with you swaddled in a tree costume I know you are in there as I am in my coat Both of us warm and waterproof with the elements at bay You dressed as a tree I like a coat We feel wild together Simpering wanting to hang from electrical wires and make the […]