[From “Phoebe 2002: An Essay,” a collaboration in progress. “Phoebe 2002” is a mock-epic based on the 1950 movie All About Eve, starring Bette Davis as Broadway star Margo Channing. Margo’s lover, director Bill Sampson, is about to fly to Hollywood to work on a film. “Starstruck” fan Eve Harrington, who Margo has just befriended, […]
Poetry 67
C.A. Conrad: Four Poems from advanced ELVIS course
Elvis didn’t know why His foot wore a black veil to be away from the world. People asked Him, “Whose foot is that with the veil?” Embarrassed, He’d say “I don’t know I don’t know!” One day a passing truck blew the veil away. Startled, they stared at one another. “It is good my foot,” […]
Regie Cabico: From The Twilight Stories
Judge Judy I am taking my mom to court because she never lets me go on field trips. The judge rules in my favor. The child is always right, she says. My mom throws a lollipop at Judge Judy’s face. The sheriff peels the sucker to reveal that Judge Judy is really Judy Garland. Virgin […]
Lisa Beskin: Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Dr. Zaius, I love you. Come back to me. My thumbs, my beard, my cold human feet.
Max Zimmer: Newly Wed
When you pick her up at the hospital after work, in the light blue Volkswagen that still shows the phantoms of the wedding graffiti when it rains, you can smell the day’s disinfectant in her green uniform. When you take her head and put your mouth on the skin behind her ear, you can smell […]
Ellen Wehle: Herodias with the Head of St. John the Baptist painting by Francesco del Cairo, 1625
I When no one is looking, she whispers in his ear. Sir, you have spoken against me. It’s beautiful, such precision, such an exact measure of penalty to offense. Her needles piercing the soft meat of his tongue. II Always the artist controls the path our eye will follow. The swooning queen; the hand, upraised […]