WORDCHASM

Father Kaveatz stood at the window of his rectory bedroom, staring out across the yard through his weathered Galilean binoculars. He smiled knowingly at the cloud of dirt far in the distance.
“They’ll be men yet,” he sighed, elbowing me in the ribs. I shook my head, but couldn’t hold back a smirk.
“A little bit of [...]

Cast iron confident little soldiers in white polo shirts and grey slacks stomped across a grassy pasture. The football marched back and forth in a cloud of mud and soot. Traffic sped by the chicken wire fence. Honks and screeching brakes nullified the shouts out far beyond the bounds of supervision.
James clothesline-tackled Craig, catching his [...]

“Now, I believe that Jesus Christ is my personal God and Savior, but there’s something strange going on with the weather.”
He stood against the brick, outer wall of the walk-in clinic, wearing fake Oakley sunglasses and a sporty polo shirt tucked into bright red basketball shorts. The accompanying red and white sneakers completed his “am [...]

“John McCain is a piece of shit.”
Bill nodded his head slowly, looking down with solemn concentration. Blue and red chips were spread across his Disabled Veteran’s Lodge Super Bingo Board. He laid down a red piece and turned his eyes to Darryl.
“I used to sit around after school and watch tv — man… those commercials [...]

Out on the late fringes of Spring, Hoosiers keep a low profile. No basketball, no soccer — only a  warming groundhog’s snowball could effect the slow pulse of May in Bloomington, Indiana. On Reclamation Sunday, our tiny, liberal, mid-western oasis breathes a sigh of relief. Student exodus turns down the volume; bike lanes reappear; adolescent [...]

The sun lowered slowly behind a row of ten dark-clad figures. Their downcast eyes looked up occasionally to meet the beady, yellow glance of alligators skimming the surface of the lake. A car door slammed and high heels clopped across the wooden bridge. Tiny flecks of twilight leapt off the black water and flickered in [...]

Bush
Clinton
Bush
Clinton
Don’t make it so
yo’ shrouded in know
Tho’ Iraq is Iraq
It’s better than Nam
Mainly, please no
McCain
Lord knows he’s
on that bus
Trusting in god,
guns, burning that oil
Nixon on steroids
McCain Mark IV

Pangea is real. Maybe Charlton Heston and Ted Haggard rode dinosaurs with Mel Gibson to get to Thunderdome before the Ice Age. Why not? I’ll believe when I see it. Play the tape back… Somebody get Homeland Security on the phone.
Once, destruction was confined to countless microcosms packed together in a motherland of innocent [...]

Piles of pink plastic toys shimmer
Around her pigtails in the center
of a capsizing bed
She scrambles for shelter
a wet dog on deck
holding on
And squirms below father’s plump finger
Voices thunder and tremble
She wails like a siren
Innocent cries for justice and mercy
Without the words or why
A father repeats
Door swings open and he enters
A sibling with memories
Of such blood
Vengeance [...]

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

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

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 [...]

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 [...]

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

When Mitt Romney defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2008 election, the United States of America paused. Open mouths dropped into laps. On that day, every citizen was alone. Baffled by the sound of one voice from the television set, they stared straight ahead — changing the channel, hoping to switch to another dream, even another [...]

4:57 PM
Ivy was listening intently, her left ear lightly caressing the grainy surface of the faintly ajar wooden door before her. She stood painfully still so as not to disturb the silence with the predictable, sanity-wrenching screech of the oil-deprived door hinges. Hearing a steady thrum of running water at last, she crept [...]

Colton grabbed his tattered green rain jacket from the floor and slung it over his shoulders. The zipper went off track and ripped straight up to his neck leaving him in what looked like nightclub maternity wear. Sighing resignedly, he headed down the hallway, past the copier, water cooler, and out the door into [...]

He didn’t own a whistle. He didn’t wear a hat. He sloped along staring into the hazy blue sky in his striped oxford shirts, khaki slacks, and brown hiking boots. His long arm cradled a clipboard — a token to coaching conformity. He spoke to his young runners in pleasant, even tones — one-by-one — [...]

Glass castle of the forest
To see the leaves
without a sneeze
Temple of light
no shadows
tall alone
Unknown beauty
observing
fragility

The Constelluchi brothers founded CStine Inc., shortly after graduation. The triplets all earned their Bachelors of Information Science and shared aspirations in the blossoming field of Nanotechnology. Their work quickly garnered much respect within inner circles. The up-and-coming tech giant Biosplat paid the brothers two million dollars to pursue their NanoMesh patent — a light-weight [...]

An empty three-year old, three bedroom sits in a breezy, dirt hill neighborhood. Furniture indentations and lightly scuffed walls cling to optimistic times — fading. A new coat of paint, fresh potpourri, and freshly baked cookies inject a shot of warmth. Dumpsters and dozers whine just outside — whispering the promises of tomorrow through echoes [...]

See a child. Water swept up my nose: a flip under waves or submerging too quickly. Pain and tears for pollen, dust, dander: fodder for weeping sinuses. Admire my cranial bulge. It fills to the brim between the eye sockets. I float from room to room, scattering tissues. Over the counter and into the living [...]

A whimsical unitard-clad gnome sits nestled at the very center of Earth. He strokes his technicolor beard — his only job. He does not wonder why. Why not? Micro-Geothermal wave thoughtslettes emanate from his creased forehead. Toasty broad spectrum nurtures while thirsty vibrations torture — towing the infinite loop. The gnome pilot stares unblinking straight [...]

I’m strolling on the pier with the gulls overhead swooping endlessly and a shadowy bulge emerges from the tide below — massive whale on the land — it lurches forward on flipper legs, bellowing through its slimy sword teeth. People scream hoarsely; they run, but I’m just standing. There’s something reassuring about this sluggish beast; [...]

I’m heading up a paved mountainside; it’s nearly straight-up and insanely, there is a dotted yellow line painted down the middle. My dashing steed is a white 1994 Dodge Neon. I’m halfway up and the engine is whining; it’s starting to sputter — gasping for relief. That beast of a hill takes over — can’t [...]

Born with the glow
though nigh womb leaving
cleaving heart’s cache
lash humming song
wrong that write again
Zen stands forlorn

Jesse Durabill lived in the basement. Inaccurate? Perhaps. Six-thousand W. Rambling Rd was hardly a residence at all. In fact, his only neighbors thought they were all alone.
Just a door in the floor — heavy and wooden with iron handles — it laid nearly flat 50 meters from the road. Tumbleweeds loped across the dusty [...]

Andy’s arm already itches intermittently
Feeling frankly forward flu
A calculated corporate computer campaign
Or magic mountain merrily matriculating
In villainous veracose vivarin veins

“Why are you interested in saving daylight?”
Gruff whispers scattered around the chamber. Long slender microphones rattled. Crotchety confusion gripped the room and bright fluorescent lights shone down atop slicked back hairplugs.
Stan squinted into the intense glare. His neck began to sweat, trickling further down all the way to the basin of his back. A pulse [...]

We boardwalked — talking through dripping cones of cream under high ornamental lamplight — the crescent moon dwarfed by the sum of solar parts. Our eyes shied from the light; the beach beckoned below. Waves crested and crashed; we knew with our ears, but needed much more.
In the warm blind womb of the world, tiny [...]

“Uh, yes. I’ll have the Bottomless Brickpasta, thanks.”
“How would you like that cooked, sir?”
“…”
“Rare, medium, well?”
“Well…?”
“Excellent. I’ll take your menus and can I start anyone off with an appeteazer?”
{From the right} “Why don’t we start off with a brisketcase and insulintinis all around?” {Nods around the table}
“Alrighty, I’ll have all that out to you shortly.” [...]

In the year 2012, one year after Pirates VII made box office history, the first ever official School for Pirates opened in St. Augustine, Florida. Scurvy State offered a one year online degree fueled by the “all-in-one” mail order Sea Simulator 3000. While Sea Sim I and II were marketed exclusively by Tony Robbins’s 90-minute [...]

Blowing kisses for the trees
Scrambling twilight miles
He points to the sky and says
Looka that
We are born perfect
Now I know
We know love —
curious compassion
Tiny arms tight ’round my neck
Making me cry
and wonder
again

Grease crackles from the kitchen as you enter. Slow burning coffee circles your needy nose. Those are potatoes on the grill — russet; that sounds good, but the salsa chorizo egg scramble beckons…the masochistic urge for indigestion hits as your weary slacks hit the booth. Ash tray secures a tip — looks small — a [...]

by Andrew Koop
Order the Meatbombe’ at Mega Mel’s: a giant chargrilled platter of cow hooves, fried in salt water then garnished with mono sodium glutamate and smothered in a delightful four cheese blend. Soak in the atmosphere: moose head, bear head, old metal petroleum signs, cowboy hat waitstaff, lassos, cigar smoke wafting from the bar, [...]

by Andrew Koop
The old wooden wheels rolled up and the down the pier each morning. Their unmistakable squeak marked every sunrise along with the clumsy shuffling and subsequent splashing of the blue-footed boobies. Behind walked Raleigh Darwin: the unrecognized and socially outcast accidental cross-pollination of the famous doctor. Born in Baltra, Eden of [...]

by Andrew Koop
Read the beginning…
He hoisted an industrial orange chainsaw from the back of the truck. Renting these kinds of tools was surprisingly easy.
“Should we have a license for something like this?” Israel’s face was crumpled in amused disbelief.
Jake, his burly colleague slipped dark sunglasses over his squinting eyes.
“You know, I never really [...]

by Andrew Koop
He runs free; crunching leaves underfoot
flailing assortment of sticks
glee overcomes a face
carefree, lawless, conscious
curly sweaty mop
atop flushed dimple cheeks
Neither of us tiring
this moment lasts forever
I tag alongside exuberance
And just being near
I am youth
the wind; the colors; the scent
Leaves burning far away
reach my nose
knowing I never really left
and never will

by Andrew Koop
“Good Afternoon, you’ve reached The Bridge, your innovative decor solution, how can I be of assistance today?”
“Yes… I’m calling to speak with Mr. Marcus.”
“May I ask who’s calling?”
“I’m calling on behalf of…”
“You know…I just realized Mr. Marcus is in a meeting. May I put you through to his voicemail?”
“Uhmm…”
“Great. Just one sec…”
Israel Sandine [...]

by Andrew Koop
Sweat stank breath leaps from every cubic slimy inch. A square box of damp hell contains twenty wrestlers: groaning, grunting, growling. A primal quest for survival wages tonight and every night. The wet slap of limbs rings down the hall to where cheerleaders bounce and squeal.
Never have you felt so alive; never have [...]

Cold breath of the lake strikes me stride-for-stride heading up South Shore Drive. I’m picking up the pace now, running with traffic not against. A sky so blue the back of my sockets float takes me out to the placid ommm center beyond the geese and glass. A few miles later the pain in my [...]

by Andrew Koop
a malnourished cactus
nothing but spines
leaning, spawning through frost
heavy rain only erodes
the heat sings back
too late
withering sparse fruit
transgressions unforgotten
blind bulldozer screams
agent of change
reextinction awaits
random blessed birth

by Andrew Koop
White tees on a black sky under the stolid deadeye beam’s watch; manic blue brother flashes blind panic eyes; and the silence persists. The cow bell night train blazes night speed, shatter-rattling and cutting the quiet. Then it returns: that starless night without sound.
Ghosts from the underworld, Pluto drags vigilant Cerberus [...]

by Andrew Koop
Bang goes your block
without notice
Slow fire fizzled ‘long
a lethal morale leak
Living for next
and never catch up
Fast food wrapper rat life
viral embers glow
Whole lot saved
waiting on the steps
Snotting cold alone
child nevermind
Mary go malcontent
just wait -
one more stop

BALOCHISTAN — In his last days, leader to the Zikri sect of Islam, Abdul Ghani, moved unilaterally to purchase Church’s Chicken. Experts concluded that the inevitable backlash from the Sunni and Shi’a lead to his untimely death by gunshot in Karachi.
Confused and mourning, praying for guidance on the eve of their pilgrimage to the Mount [...]

9:00 and it’s already hot — surrounding our trinket-strewn lawnscape with a twinkling, sulfuric haze. The Calusa once cultivated this land. This time of day, they’d already be in full swing: carrying fresh water, building huts, and hauling fish. But, here we are still scrambling to promote and stage scattered buffets of consumer bloat.
I’m wincing, [...]

LOCK AND KEY, SAFE WITHIN THE VATICAN CITY ENCLAVE, shrouded beneath the Holy Library, Pope Benedict sat at the head of a seamless 50 yard solid oak table. He stood gesturing hands asway and his deep set eyes cast a dark shadow over the sea of white Cardinal robes. His voice echoed slightly through the [...]

On another buttermilk batter day in another country fried town, the wheels of change were churning. The Bayou was burning hot, but the hard hats wiped their sun scorched brows and hiked up their Dungarees. Like biscuits from heaven, money had poured into the small Louisianna town and chicken chain restaurants emerged on every other [...]

Dollie swung the chicken basket out of the frier as unnoticed grease leapt up onto her bulging forearm. Her gloved finger waved in Josh’s face. His eyes looked on as more grease gurgled and popped to the beat of the neglected chicken timer. Her choice words lost meaning in the kitchen heat; he tilted [...]

by Andrew Koop
We filed into the fat, flying freightfurter carrying our comforts — pensive and bubbly. I snuggled into my seat with my hands pressed tightly atop my opinion-filled drab messenger bag. Squinting out the window, I watched the hand signals and luggage carts — anything to calm the anxiety.
I didn’t have to fidget long. [...]