The Twilight of Freedom, a poem by Osip Mandelstam
Jenny Wade
Let us praise, brothers, freedom’s twilight,
The great diminishing year!
A heavy forest of nets is lowered
Into the turbulent waters of night.
You are ascending in desolate years,
Oh sun, judge, people.
Let us prai...
A Junkie’s Christmas
Vincent Zangrillo
Okay, you’re right. I am sitting by a pool in the sub-tropical Florida sun, not too far from West Palm Beach, and it is the middle of August, so hot that just lifting a drink makes you sweat. But this is, I assure you, a s...
A Christmas Miracle, Sort Of…
Ron Kolm
It’s a cold morning, two weeks before Christmas, and I’m walking across 57th street on my way to work when I noticed him up ahead, shuffling along the curb -- silver hair, blue jacket and white sneakers – not dressed f...
Three Poems by George Wallace
George Wallace
These three poems will appear in George Wallace's latest book, "Shadow of the Slow Decline" (Blue Light Press, SF Ca), scheduled for release in the spring of 2017.
SHE LIVES IN A LITTLE PLACE OF BOATS
Like a...
Once Upon a Time in the East Village
Jim Feast
Clarissa felt as if she had gone from starving on a diet of bread and water to gorging on a bountiful smorgasbord. In Oblong, where she grew up, any glimmerings of culture were hard to discern. Her one friend in school, a f...
Killing the Dogs of Kathmandu
Jason DeBoer
Killing the Dogs of Kathmandu, by Jason DeBoer
An excerpt from Annihilation Songs: Three Shakespeare Reintegrations, available now from Stalking Horse Press
Editor's Note: This is one of the more interesting pieces that...
The Swimmer
Liza Béar
New York, July 1 2016. We’d arranged to meet in the lobby of her hotel, a newfangled glass & steel construction with river views and sports facilities. Seated with chin propped on fist, almost in a Rodin Le Penseur pose, w...
Dr. B. Said
Larissa Shmailo
As I contemplate my treatment by the psychiatrist J. B. M.D. over a span of twenty years, I recall some of the things the good doctor said and did.
Dr. B. of Connecticut, of the upper classes.
Who carried bedpans as an...
Two Poems by Stephen Berk
Stephen Berk
The Family Tree
To all the sons and all the daughters of all the mothers and all the fathers who blessed their children with the demons that drove them to greatness:
Happy Mother’s Day Mother, this two-dollar gift ca...
The End of The World
Vincent Zangrillo
New York City—8/8/84—Day to Night
Mark wanted to see how fast he could burn through the 10,000 dollar inheritance from Grandpa Dave, who sold schmatta to Hendrix on St Marks, and who despite his gnomic wisd...
The Large Ladies of Lands’ End and L.L. Bean
John J. Trause
The Large Ladies of Lands' End and L.L. Bean
"I have been heavy and had much selecting."
--Gertrude Stein, Lifting Belly [1915 - 1917]
Because I am not satisfied by the limited palette of...
SLEET
D. James Smith
Sleet, the first he’d seen in California, and not much of it at that. At five thousand feet in February, it made sense, though. Nosing along in his pickup, he’d traced the lake created by Pacific Gas and Electric, part...
A Home on the Plains
Meg Kaizu
A boundless region extends from the east to west, from the south to north. There are a few trees, dwellings and ranches that stretch out over the horizon. Many travelers drive very fast. This place is nothing more than unwan...
Two Poems For Fall by Rebecca Weiner Tompkins
Rebecca Weiner Tompkins
ANOTHER AUTUMNAL
Sometimes I imagine
parking lots are water, dark seas
no longer dry ground
but not either anywhere to drown.
Sometimes all the trees in the park
are radiant yellow
in the end of November twiligh...
Bob Dylan Deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature
Bernard Meisler
Bob Dylan just won the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature. Many are angry. But they're wrong. He deserves it.
Joni Mitchel says Dylan is a fake. I take her critique with a grain of salt. Certainly Dylan is a confabulist—in...
