Writing
Hard candy
Carrie Magness Radna
He always wanted love
more delicious than
hard candy
couldn’t ever get enough—
never could quench down the fire
in his loins, in his mouth
and she was red-hot
once upon a time,
before their kid, before the fa...
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Review
Anne Waldman: the Poet vs. the Warring God
John Pietaro
This is my vision…days on earth/Days when the weather changed course
When we lost our minds/When leaders failed us/ There was no wisdom.
From the opening strains of “Extinction Aria”, the lead selection on Anne Wa...
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Poem
TIFFANY AND ERIC AND DON JR AND KIMBERLY COMPLAIN: THE LEFT IS TRYING TO CANCEL US (WELL BOO HOO TO THAT)
George Wallace
So, Tiffany and Eric and Don Jr and Kim Guilfoyle say those opposed to daddy's form of government are trying to silence them. That it is radical and unfair to speak out against his style of political discourse -- by which I ...
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Poem
BURROW
Olena Jennings
We were trapped inside.
We used to throw our cigarette butts
out the window.
We were leaving pieces of ourselves
everywhere then.
The soles of my shoes crumbled
and the threads of my shirts unraveled.
He came to se...
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Writing
Three Poems by Vladimir Gandelsman
Anna Halberstadt
***
И от любви остаётся горстка
пепла, не больше напёрстка.
Нет, не страшно стало душе
быть нелюбимой уже.
Вот тебе рукави�...
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Poem
Across the Wounded City
Kevin R. Pennington
I.
Riding the bus,
going to the doctor.
Today, it’s the psychiatrist.
Tomorrow the therapist.
I ride in silence,
staring at my phone.
The trip is long,
as measured in poetic
meter. Too many stops
for an en...
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Poem
Steve Cannon’s Parting Words
Jim Feast
were usually, “Here take $20” or “Take this $40”
which was to pay for stuff at the bodega
I read to him late Saturday afternoons, and, as no one was usually due to drop by till Sunday, I got the supplies before I...
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Poem
Ordinary Death in the Time of Plague
Peter Marti
RIP Vincent Zangrillo
One by one the pillars we lean on crumble into
an equally impossible horizon—
you are gone and the City you loved is far away
the dead command the living now, are afforded
freezer-trucks bu...
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Story
Brushes With Fame
Bernard Meisler
When I lived in New York City, I frequently had brief, meaningless encounters with celebrities.
I used to have a place on 6th Street between 2nd and 3rd. One time I was at my front door and a limo pulled to a stop ri...
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Story
Overtime
Glenn Russell
For many years Neal Merman commuted back and forth to his place of work like countless others. Neal performed the job of an everyday clerk in an insurance office; a room with blank walls, linoleum floor and forty desks under...
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Readings
Sensitive Skin Beer Virus Reading #12 – Suzi Kaplan Olmsted, Carl Watson, Arthur Nersesian
Suzi Kaplan Olmsted
Quarantine is effectively over (for now...) so this is the final Sensitive Skin Beer Virus Reading! We go out with a bang! This week features:
- Suzie Kaplan Olmsted (5:40)
- Carl Watson (23:40)
- Arthur Nersesian (38:5...
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Readings
Sensitive Skin Beer Virus Reading #11 – William Considine, Maggie Dubris and Andrei Codrescu
William Considine
Another in our virtual(ly) endless series of online Beer Virus readings during quarantine! The smart reading series with the stupid name! This week, June 4, 2020, features:
- William Considine (3:22)
- Maggie Dubris (18:...
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Poem
What Will Come of It All
Ron Kolm
I’m sitting
In the Parkside Lounge
With a good friend, drinking
Too many White Russians
And bemoaning
The state of the world.
“What’s going to happen?”
I ask her.
“Well,” she says,
“There wi...
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Essay
The National Guard Have Been Deployed
Patrick O'Neil
Sirens fill the warm night air. A helicopter hovers. Then disappears behind a plume of black smoke—its spotlight strafing the crowded streets of downtown Los Angeles. “Protestors are being removed from Whole Foods.” Th...
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