Story
Myiagros
Díre McCain
It enters the room at 10:15 on the dot every morning, flitting about for several minutes before hovering over my perishing body. I wait for it to alight and pounce on what remains of my sanity.
It touches down on my chin...
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Story
Chuck
Vincent Zangrillo
Gregory loved Peggy Biderman who lived at the Chelsea Hotel. Peggy, she was probably around 55, even older than Gregory (who was twice as old as me) but younger than I am now. I’m not sure of the relationship the two had i...
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Story
Bunny Embers
Jane Ormerod
Bunny Embers
A melody ponytail, a middle-name smile, an old-fashioned jig with the neighbors. A wipe of the windscreen, sunscreen. Gimme the Carter, the Marlowe, the town protector, the well-breakfasted, the special ones ...
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Art
Just A Little Bit
Puma Perl
I had to shit on someone to make this money! shrieked Lani, I need you to get me off! Now!
Lani had translucent skin and tiny, spidery veins. Usually, I could find a place to hit her but she’d done some serious damage o...
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Art
The DEAD MAN
Julius Klein
(Bus routes, train routes, walking patterns and thinking jags)
Riding the #22 Clark Street bus north on a fall evening in Chicago, 1978, getting off at the Armitage stop, descending the few stairs to the oval expanse of p...
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Writing
Joined at the Hips
bart plantenga
When you hitchhiked back then, before it was redefined as criminal trespass – and dangerous – you could get around OK and once in a while catch a ride with someone you would never have met in your regular life. [Do not t...
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Art
Scab Vendor 39 – Sins of the Father
Jonathan Shaw
Jonathan Shaw is a world-traveling outlaw artist, novelist, anti-folk hero and underground philosopher, writing in the literary tradition of Celine, Bukowski, Henry Miller and The Beats. Once widely-known as a legendary tatt...
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Story
Babe Ruth’s Last Game
Drew Hubner
Snow is falling on Sedgwick Ave above the Major Deegan highway east of the Harlem River. Barely light with no sun. The snow blankets the sidewalk, slushes in the streets and gutters and swirls through the gray morning air. ...
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Art
Cabin
Francine Witte
Every night when the sun sets, I see her. Just over my shoulder like a blind spot in the rearview. Always. Been like this forever. I tell this to my best friend Al, and she laughs her giggly laugh, the one that makes me ...
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Art
The Vampires of Pattaya Beach
David Huberman
Cat woke me up. I immediately looked at my dollar fifty alarm clock. It was twelve noon, with the sun shining through our windows. My little sweetie was jumping up and down like a Mexican jumping bean, spitting and cursing i...
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Photographs
Mugged By A Movie Star (Miguel Piñero)
B. Kold
I’m ineligible to serve on a jury. Whenever I’m selected for jury duty, I never make it past the first voir dire—the part where the defense and district attorneys interview prospective jurors to ensure they’re not bi...
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Story
GUN NEEDLE SPOON – I’m Starving
Patrick O'Neil
San Francisco, July 21, 1996
In the refrigerator are five cakes: carrot, lemon, raspberry swirl, three-layer chocolate, and some kind of tiramisu, or maybe it’s mocha. I can’t tell. Five large, heavily frosted cakes, ...
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Story
A Bad Day – An Excerpt From Duke And Jill
Ron Kolm
Duke knew it was going to be a bad day, even before he got out of bed. He had a splitting headache, and a lump the size of a nickel bag on the back of his neck. He couldn’t remember where he’d been last night—or how he...
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Story
Narcisa – An Excerpt
Jonathan Shaw
I was seeing double with fatigue. But Narcisa was just getting started.
She hopped along, from subject to subject, like a cocaine-crazed, hyperactive little fairy, flittering between realms of thought I could barely fatho...
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