7.03 / March 2012
A New Person
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Please, no pity; these are facts.
My admission was immediate, unchallenged. The facility made exceptions. I renounced my name, possessions and liberties. I was allocated a private room – it was proposed as a temporary arrangement. At that point, no ward would have me.
Information was fed back slowly, [...]
West
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When Stephen Linkfelt was headed to his locker to retrieve his father’s M14 semi-automatic rifle, Cal Jones was in Art History getting ready to ask if he could visit the restroom. It was game day and as such Cal, West High’s three-year starting Quarterback was dressed in [...]
A Man Gets Tired
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When Sally drank Sally got ugly. Didn’t matter where we were. Could’ve been at the White House for all she cared. She’d get a couple shooters in her and start speaking up. Talking shit to anyone who’d listen. Got me in a few scrapes along the way, [...]
Why Things Fall
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Priscilla led Isaac by the hand outside, walked him to a tree, placed his back against the trunk. She pulled an apple from between her breasts and placed it on his head. She told him to stand perfectly still. Priscilla strode twenty paces away, turned, [...]
La Muda y La Tonta
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La Profe, Dulcia de Mendoza, paces in front of the children, her long hair a swaying pendulum, her name a fitting tribute to her inherent sweetness. Aileen wondered if the dark smudge on la Profe’s cheek would be hereditary. She would pass it down to her daughters [...]
Oysteresque
Nelson didn’t like that I was oysteresque, and that hurt. That is, Nelson didn’t like that I was oysteresque, except when he wanted to fuck me. Like now.
He got some vocals going along with his a-bonging banging rhythm. “That’s right, girl.†His thrusts slammed the headboard into the wall. “Feels good.†[...]
The Crown Prince of Irkutsk Oblast
1. The subject introduced under three heads
Valeria pokes the sides of her baby’s fat stomach. She is amazed by his aliveness, by the hot breaths that drift down onto his rounded chest, the skin-creases where elbows and knees will eventually be. She loves him in a way she cannot name-nothing like what [...]
Six Poems
Napoleon Refines His Palate in Purgatory
Some scallops have smooth shells:
others have ribs that radiate
from their hinges. According
to genus, they may be
red, orange, yellow, black,
or white. I stir the wehani
rice in its banged-up pot,
tear radicchio from its core.
I call for caraway seeds.
While you dine in seas
of mirin and cream
I [...]
Three Poems
REVISION: ELISE
In one story you wash up
on a cold shore, your blue lips parted
around hidden pleasures-
and even sodden, scrubbed by salt, cocooned in thick plastic,
you blonde and you starlet;
it’s my hope that a handsome
agent of the FBI
will investigate your death,
determine its mystical origin,
but until then, the real story:
you just didn’t [...]
Two Photos
Jackson Cage
Every other weekend it’s three hours there and three hours back. That’s six hours of listening to Samson’s mother talk and stopping every 15 miles so she can pee. Then we’re there and the guard hands me a sweatshirt to put over my tank top. They say it’s best not [...]
Night of the Living Blues
She’s savvy and slender. Her mama says
she’s sassy. Her papa says she’s a sip
of wine. Her preacher proclaims she’s bathtub
hooch making all the praying men go blind.
She’s the subject of every hush and hiss
spewing from pursed lips dribbling over
countertops, bars, and bone china tea sets.
Blue-haired-horn-rimmed-glasses gab on [...]
Slack Tide
I don’t know why I did it. I walked off of the subway this morning and there was another across the platform, going back the way I’d come. It was empty, and the doors were open, casting a warm yellow glow across the platform. It was so inviting. None of [...]
Two Stories
E.T.! Phone Home!
There is this story about Nolan Bushnell, the founder and CEO of Atari, and the video game adaptation of the popular film E.T. that he green lit. The game, thrown together at the last minute to capitalize on the success of what was clear to be a massive [...]
Apophonia
Remember, back then? How we always lied?
Oh, I know, she said. She smiled, then laughed. It was horrible.
Wasn’t it? Jesus. I couldn’t take a piss without lying about it.
I couldn’t manage it either. She shook her head, smiling. Remember that time? About your sister being sick?
He laughed. I remember.
No, she [...]
The Listening Glass
held the listening glass
to the bare patch
in the carpet
a hole hidden to the un-
finished floorboard
under the plush animals
at the foot of the bed
mother said:
father said:
television said: body stabbed
found the listening glass
on the cabinet shelf
in the kitchen
hidden behind the un-
bleached flour
under the shelf of rice
at the top of the cabinet
mother said:
father [...]
Moving
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1.
It was a long ride. After we pushed our bikes up Laurel Hill, I was drenched. We maneuvered through the front door, dumped all of our belongings on the floor, and saw that there was no space to lie down. It was our first night in his [...]
Say Spilt Milk
is worth crying over. Say the viaduct is just right for counting cars or contemplation or leaping. Say the alphabet backwards to a cop and he’ll think you sober, but crazy, call his cop friends, cart you off to the hospital, one with a pleasant name-say Hillcrest or Mountain View-you [...]
It’s All Pretend
After I finish I roll onto my back and she lays her head on my bare chest, draping her left arm over my waist. When it’s over there’s always this pain inside, like a small fist poking around in my gut. But I’ve never told her this. I close my [...]
Self-Portrait as Sex Addict Chained to a Rusty Heater
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-After Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan
Miss Mayella says There ain’t no better cure
for the blues than good pussy,
and I guess she’s half right, but I prefer men
when I elbow-crawl through Magnolias,
crushed cigarette butts.
Just-shucked corn.
~
It’s this awful itch, a hellfire born from
my memories in heat.
~
Lazarus claims God [...]
Three Must Haves
Kumi Kookoon California King Silk Comforter: $1500
In a charmeuse, the warp threads must cross over three or more weft threads. Here, one can think of the weft as wrought iron and warp as concrete. Both must exist for the weave to function but, inspected closely, it appears as if the [...]
Four Stories
Another Glass Essay
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Last night we discussed breastfeeding, but it didn’t start that way. My lover and I were suffering an attachment to each other troubled by his six week training sabbatical in Minneapolis, worsened by how new we were to each other. Nights fell to discussion of [...]
Things That Fall Out Of Books
Black sneeze of spores.
A postcard from Baja.
Biscotti crumbs once gobbled
over The Master and Margarita.
Tulip mummies, stamens mashed.
Glue-glutted silverfish.
The cumbrous words;
claptrap; supine; somnolence.
A nickel dated 1985.
Basquiat’s unbanked millions.
Girl in America
1.
The Makeup Artist summoned the whore in her. It was surprisingly easy and quick. For most girls it took more prodding, but Mexican Whore #2 arrived eagerly, as if she’d spent her whole life waiting for this moment.
“Good girl. Perfection,†he says, spinning her toward the mirror.
For a moment [...]
Two Poems
Speaking of Serial Killers
I’ve married the square of skin
described beneath your cheekbone.
I am drawing a map of the scar on your elbow,
your village grin, your yellow eye.
I dance like a heathen in the dustbowl of your indifference.
I will tape the purple crescents of your bitten fingernails
along the spines of library [...]
In the Heart Library
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It turns out there is such a thing as a heart library. It is housed in the basement of a medical building behind a dining hall on the campus of a large public university. It is maybe a secret. There are no signs that read Heart Library→announcing [...]
The Deaths of Max Morozov
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The first time Maxim Morozov died was in his mother’s womb. She hadn’t known that she was pregnant with twins, until just before going into labor, when she cracked an egg into the frying pan and found it had two yolks. There were complications during the delivery; [...]