My mother and I sit at opposite ends of her kitchen table. I drove up from Memphis this morning, at the urging of my two sisters, who say they’re getting worried. They want me to call afterwards, get my impressions. My mother and I are wearing facemasks.
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Andy Plattner ~ At the Democrat Museum in Madisonville, Kentucky
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Callan Preece ~ The Virtue of Plastics
Then he stopped wanting sex. Then he stopped talking much at all. At his worst he’d pace through rooms and the air would adhere and follow him and all the time you could feel all these thoughts going through his head—these images of syphilis and
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Mercury-Marvin Sunderland ~ One Albino Bug Crawling On A Piece Of Moss
One albino bug crawling on a piece of moss.
Long antennae.
Simple legs.
It jumps, flying down onto a piece of pine.
Walking across sand and gravel. Crawls across a stick.
A dead albino moth -
Kim Chinquee ~ Catnip
I fold the paper, waiting at the diner. Sip my water, check my phone for the time. The guy is late: my date, who I met online. I look out the window: the moon like clumps.
The paper has a picture of a guy wanted for killing someone in the tropics.
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Jane Armstrong ~ Notes from Annabelle Next Door (age four)
Scream as loudly as you can at random times, day or night, without shame or apology.
Sing the music in your head without regard to melody or rhythm. Performing outside announces your presence and asserts your identity.
Shout “Hi, neighbor!”
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Kevin Tosca ~ Mature Concern
A couple of tall, healthy, prosperous, fragrant young Canadians, one from Winnipeg, the other from Saskatoon, in my living room tonight defending the idea of the weekend and their God-given right to play a little club music on Friday night.
I calmly
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Pavle Radonic ~ Jakarta 1440H
The Witching Hour
The knock on the door came shortly after 3. Wooden particle board making the light rap resound, of course at that hour especially. In the days prior there had been some concern an illicit arrangement on that side of Jakarta might not be met with a
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Tao Lin ~ Meditation
Somewhat complex grumpiness
on the precipice of a beautiful world
in a loving, magical universe
symbiotic with viruses and bacteria
Persistent, intrusive thoughts
Chemical virtual realities
Diatribing in public -
Harris Lahti ~ Exquisite Corpse
The backyard garden is a fenced-in pool of murky black Jell‑O that sucks and belches up Heather’s feet as she collects its monstrous and mishappen produce into wicker baskets—onions the size of bowling balls, carrots bent at right angles, apples
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Corey Miller ~ zoo woman real bad
She entered the tiger exhibit as one of them; licking her paws as if pricked by thorns, prowling the limited space, waiting for raw meat to plop down when and where it did everyday. the other tigers observed her as an imposter, but the children around
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Todd Clay Stuart ~ Accessories
She was half angel, half angel dust, with eyes like coal mines that could cave in any time. Wore my dirty tee shirts straight off the floor. Wrote i love the fuck out of you in purple lipstick on the cracked bathroom mirror; keyed when
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Solomon Ọládipúpọ̀ ~ Two poems
Reawakening
chaos in town. a viral siege
our words are wings flying across cities
you, there; me, here. us — two
worlds a/partabove, the sky thickens
like the locust swarms of March
sweeping through Nairobidown here, we await it daily -
as the figures roll -
Fortunato Salazar ~ 504 Charlie 2020
When he sowed, he’d been optimistic. Wow. He’d gone to the IHOP and done some seed genetics calculations on a napkin. Majestic seed genetics calculations. Now it was October and just look at that front yard. Misery. The cucurbits could best be
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Tatiana Retivov ~ Two Poems
LOVE IN TIMES OF WAR
The air glimmers with pollen,
smog and haze. A meltdown
of the senses. I think of tanks
scurrying like mice across
the border. Armed fiends in green
bring new meaning to being
a soldier of (mis)fortune. All
feelings -
Ross McMeekin ~ The Face of God
When four-year-old Doug threw his Jesus Christ ornament into the fireplace, everyone in the family jumped up at once, but his grandmother Deb led the way. Deb was a retired high school English teacher with a beautician’s posture and unusually long
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Wendy BooydeGraaff ~ Horizon
She spent hours looking for the perfect sink. Farmhouse sinks with enamel apron fronts, vintage cast iron with attached drainboards, stainless restaurant-grade utility sinks. She wanted a little style, she told him, a little upgrade to what had rusted
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Simon Perchik ~ Five Poems
*
From the same magic spell that’s not air
you lay bare two suns–a blinding run
before there was any life on Earth–what follows already knows
how love would work and went for it
though nobody will say where that star wentexcept when reaching out
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Zac Smith ~ Healthy, Fit, and Fulfilled
It was the weekend and I rode my bike to the river. Someone had set up a ramp for stunts. Kids were ramping their mountain bikes off of the ramp and into the river, leaping from the seat at the last minute to try and grab a large knotted rope that
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Gary Percesepe ~ More Sentences We Couldn’t Get Enough Of
(a cento)
The problem of psychologically distorted deities is an extremely complex subject, which transcends the limitations of the present work. In the east, I could see Jupiter rising, fat and blurry. We begin to recognize the monuments of the bourgeoisie
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Pat Foran ~ When You Entertain Notions of Freedom and the Sea Settles in for the Night and You Think She Might See You Out There, in the Distance
Raymond Burr, the actor who played Perry Mason, buys an island in the Republic of Fiji and calls it Nowheresville Inc.
On his island, Raymond Burr, the actor who played Ironside, raises orchids, cattle and Space Food Sticks.
Raymond Burr, whose scenes