Archive for February, 2008
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Yanstebangus: Poll Position Pt. 1
“OK, Murray, here’s the gag. Reality show, OK? We get this nut job to put together four of the world’s favorite pop musicians, under the pretense he’s putting together a super-group. Then, when everything looks like it’s going great, POW! ZOK!”
The sudden burst of ebullience and wild gesticulation made the bespectacled Murray [...]
2 Comments » - Tags: Mustly, nance, satire, shecky, yanstebangus by sheckyMerman
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Final Goodbyes: A love note
I hope this isn’t too late.
It’s been a while since we talked, haven’t seen you in a couple years. I know I live right down the street from you but we seem to have fallen apart since the accident.
I remember the days we spent together now, the life we had. I remember making the mementos [...]
2 Comments » - Tags: Francesco by Francesco Prano
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
Special Blend
Recipe for Widely Palatable Modern Man:
1 part coffee, store bought.
5 hours of sleep
3 hours of television (preferably sitcoms)
1 mortgage
50 hours of unfulfilling work
1 hour of leisure
1 nagging spouse
3 angry bosses
2 types of medication (for the heart or mind, a poorly crafted multivitamin, or others depending on your taste)
Take the ingredients, mix thoroughly until all parts [...]
1 Comment » - Tags: julius by julius
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Attrition
Swinging spade
powerfully low
glassy chips and
granite bits
My spine
breaking water
though separation
pangs
Jack returns with
icy fresh vigor
this old back
remains
No Comments » - Tags: koop, poetry by Andrew Koop
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Woof, Woof– Doggerel!
Mr. Ghosh had a single galosh;
he wore it right up the street.
He said, “My only trouble will be if a puddle
covers both of my feet.”
Gruesome:
I forgot a lot of facts, but I still knew some.
I used to be short, but then I gruesome.
A hapless old witch named Martha McPitch
nearly struck out with her coven.
She baked [...]
No Comments » - Tags: shecky by sheckyMerman
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
A Wordchasm Public Service Announcement
Do you have what it takes to be a crossing guard?
Stopping traffic… guiding pedestrians… facing down screaming death machines, hurtling their way toward your extended, white-gloved hands, when all that stands between the huddled, shuffling masses of kiddies and certain doom is you… and your whistle.
We salute these Everyday Heroes… folks like Edgar J. Birdwhistle, [...]
No Comments » - Tags: crossing guard, parody, PSA, satire by sheckyMerman
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
I Dream
What am I to explore?
No stone unturned, to my frustration.
Who am I to adore?
An open eye displays abomination.
So I sit and I dream of a life filled with green and crimson and blue. There’s no me and no you, only two of a kind quite unsure how to find their way back.
What am I [...]
No Comments » - Tags: julius by julius
Monday, February 18th, 2008
Selling
John knew as soon as he entered the boardroom: this crowd was his. He stepped confidently to the end of the table opposite the imposing Mr. Davis. In between John and Mr. Davis sat twelve yes men and women, their necks spring loaded in anticipation, their marble pens locked in place with kung-fu [...]
1 Comment » - Tags: commentary, julius, sales by julius
Monday, February 18th, 2008
Palmetto Panini
Slick red wrinkles on
raw soak fingers.
Steel wool grinding over
bone faux marble
Bleach water bucket
stings eyes nose
though nowhere
near
He says hurry.
“We need
glass.”
But fast is not
clean and salmon
else’s guilt
1 Comment » - Tags: koop, poetry by Andrew Koop
Monday, February 18th, 2008
Hoosier
Out of Virginia and Carolina
to new hills and red clay
Scots-Irish, German, English
With stills, hounds, home brew
Children in packs
Bearing freckles and chestnut curls
Massacring oak and hickory
For slab-board shacks and fields of corn, potatoes, cabbage, hemp, tobacco
Subsistence
I am not a flat-lander of the Tipton Til Plain
I am of the Upland,
of Pentecost Revivals,
rusted four wheel drive Chevys,
from those [...]
1 Comment » - Tags: Brad, poetry by Brad Chitwood
Saturday, February 16th, 2008
Broken Rhythm (Kitchen Magnet Blurbs, Part II)
kill the secret lingering joy
she wakes from the fever
never let her broken smile heal
make the child-life melt like ice
with its almost translucent angel beauty
No Comments » - Tags: Francesco, poetry by Francesco Prano
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
A Trip to the Inland Sea
I walk through snow, prints trail behind
The wind’s so cold, but I don’t mind
I top a drift and look to find the lake, too vast to be frozen.
I want to sip the frigid waves
To swim and see if Jesus Saves
But that’s not how a man behaves, and so I find my feet going.
I turn and [...]
4 Comments » - Tags: julius, lakes, snow, water by julius
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
NBC
I used to be a normal person. I woke up around 6:45, took a 15 minute shower, ate a perfunctory breakfast of eggs and coffee, and rode the subway to work like everyone else. My routine never varied. My dedication to this schedule never wavered, never faltered. Even when small wrinkles [...]
6 Comments » - Tags: julius, koop by julius
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
cobblestones
Nighttime has settled around us and the cool air is just humid enough to poke through our clothing. But we are warm anyway, basking in the sweetened glow of each others’ smiling faces. Your bleach-blond hair reflects the light dancing forth from ancient streetlights while wisps of wind find their way into the flaps of [...]
1 Comment » - Tags: andylievertz, justthebeginning, shortstory by Andy Lievertz
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Concierge
Three hundred and sixty degrees of darkness. The clopping of my heels against stone steps. I’m a corkscrew headed down.
We are getting warmer from late Fall to mid Spring. The first drop of sweat leaves my forehead and the loss overcomes me. I feel it all so strongly here without even a shadow to [...]
2 Comments » - Tags: flash-fiction, koop by Andrew Koop
Monday, February 4th, 2008
Circuit
We from the South
and the rich eat the poor
Alley gator needle arms
dank whispers in the dark
Ozone escapes
through hollow pockets
Gone and where?
North city lights
Sunny dark enough
Empty not gone
I’m stark with
eyes horizontal
Bang the night
black bright fear
silent alone
when running
The valley is high
She is my sun
Hearing then
and never gone
3 Comments » - Tags: koop, poetry by Andrew Koop
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
Normalcy
I exist.
I know it
Because I feel pain
The agony as I kill myself.
The luxurious curves are cut away
No more nonsense, I tell myself unmercifully
Wielding the evil knife shaped like an endless clock.
I become limited, beauty-less, shapeless, frill-less
I get smaller, thinner, transparent
As the excess layers fall
To planes and angles.
Cut, cut, cut,
Dying.
Go on,
Shave the head
Glory is a farce [...]
3 Comments » - Tags: Brijida, poetry by Brijida Prano
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
Perfect Nightmare
It was so depressing. Jenna had been walking for miles now, it seemed, and the gentle fog rain wouldn’t stop. The trees and identical paths and idyllic houses stretched for miles in either direction, an endless testament to the American Dream where you can get rich, get a bunch of stuff, and die miserable. ‘Cause [...]
