I was never really into boy bands. I mean, sure, I belted the lyrics to every Backstreet Boys song that came on the radio. And, okay, I had an N*SYNC poster on my bedroom wall. And I might have dreamt about running off to Hawaii with Taylor Hanson and those long, luxurious locks of perfect blond hair… But I swear, I was never really into boy bands.
climate change
the ice shifts
in my water glass
Elizabeth Alford
I walk down a side street, looking up for the answer.
Nothing.
It was in his blood and his blood is mine, and so on.
Gabriel Bates
It’s like the blurred vignette on a doctored photograph. It’s like a doubled-sided headache without the ache, just an overwhelming sense of disconnect. Yet connections are made nonetheless. Answers to secrets of the universe reverberate in your veins, jumpstarting your brain, but damn! It’s like your body is running on empty.
By the way, the gas light came on and I need the car tomorrow. Here’s a twenty. Oh, and can you pick up like five of those fully-loaded burritos from that place up the street? Extra onions. Grab a bunch of those little packets of hot sauce too. Thanks.
like stale bread
and morning breath
the taste of a sneeze
Elizabeth Alford
I check in the hotel and walk
and walk and walk
there!
I approach the house of my birth
and ring the bell
A rented car
we drive south east –
the Rhodopy mountain
winding road
our destination
Levochevo
a tiny village in the mountain
red roofs
smoking chimneys –
the forest
A rented house – a week in Levochevo.
Steep steps.
A woman opens the door, lights the fire.
Easter Sunday
I stroll in Levochevo –
narrow winding alleys
An old man approaches and stares at me.
“Please remind me, who were you?
my head forgets so many things!”
“I’m a tourist at Valkanov’s house”
“Ahhh! The Valkanov’s house, big house!”
“Yes, it’s a family reunion, we’re four generations in Valkavov’s!
“From which part of the country are you
from?”
“I’m from Sofia”
“Ahhh! Sofia! You don’t give a damn about us in Levochevo! You don’t care! The old die, the young leave! Just look around!”
I look around
“A house for sale”
cracking walls
a new drainpipe
“A house for sale”
broken window panes no door
“Yes”, I say, “I looked around”
“All the best!” he says’
“Thank you, and all the best to you too”
a friendly old but strong handshake
Freddy Ben-Arroyo
green sea foam jello is a delicacy enjoyed
by the Curtain Snappers who also enjoy
an occasional game of carpet rugby
organized by the Ministry of Picture Wizards
who partake in an ever increasing number
of typewriter joyrides while
rounding up all of the Candle Tappers
until the unbearable burden
of the enjoyment itself
comes down to
the sickening reality
of a leather lampshade.
But the fruit was so sweet . . .
silence the fig tree missing leaves
Susan Beth Furst
What’s left of the Lucky Charms I mix in with a little bit of Life creating a tincture a serum a salve what-have-you that just might cure okay staunch I mean plug this feeling of being lost at sea this soupy blue milk is all I’ve got to slurp down dribble out so derelict have I become at prayers.
whiteout conditions signing my will
Peter Newton
