I would like to sit with you at Velocity Bar once your shift is up, Veronica, once you have removed your name from your lapel and hung your Marriott blazer in the employees-only closet. We can laugh and forgive Indianapolis for snow in April. We can forgive tall girls blown in from coasts, their volleyball […]
Poetry 91
Leonard Gontarek: Virgin Crying In My Dream
Every year they sacrifice a virgin. This year is my turn. Wait, don’t cry, I think I can get you out of this. I think I know a way.
Leonard Gontarek: Two Poems on Flying
1. Hero You ever notice, when I’m around, Superman is not around. 2. Carnival My parents went to get something to eat. My grandmother watched us. We wanted to go on the Ferris wheel. We gave our helium balloons to our grandmother to hold. She floated away. When our parents returned, we told them what […]
Leonard Gontarek: Philadelphia
Sisyphus Construction Company
J. Oscar Franzen: Did You Hear About Some Woman With an Ear Growing in her Arm?
I heard she’s preggers, and the baby ear got tablesawed by tortilla chip fragments. Ear got into the bloodstream somehow. Ended up elbowside. * * * No, she’s a mule trafficking in Ecuadorian ears. * * * Wrong-o. I heard the boyfriend dryhumped her elbow. Little swimmers got into her skin […]
Valerie Fox: Two Important Questions About Pornography
Who do you know that is really into pornography? Why are they so into pornography? A friend of mine with three children always wants to talk about pornography, well, “porn.” She worries about what the kids see. She worries they’ll see something they will never forget. Like for instance (she has a few examples she […]