1991 January 11 Mari, Papa, and I, with you in my tummy, went to California, to visit family and old friends, from December 17, 1990, through January 7. Your due date was February 6, so we came back about a month before. I was thinking you might pop out while we were in California, but it was good that you remained where you were. I was taking a training course to be a simultaneous translator then and was hoping that you would be born after February 10th to maintain my required attendance.  So looking forward to the moment of meeting you.       February 12 Our midwife ..read more

On the back of his bike, doing 80 on the highway, I considered letting go, just to ruin his life.    My arms around his waist were the only thing restraining me. But I knew it wouldn’t ruin his life. Not even close.    The blur of the billboards and the desiccated chollas and the cars we dodged got blurrier. I tightened my grip.   *   Dad taught me how to shoot pool when I was twelve, insisting that I get good at it, telling me it was important. “You live by the cock, you die by the cock, I’ve always said.” I nodded like I understood.    “I never fucked ..read more

A pickup truck with ‘Lake Michigan Pest Control’ on it passed me by and I reflexively jumped into fighting stance. There are days when leaving the cage feels great but nothing beats getting back in. Closing the door yourself smiling. Already decorated already smelling like you. What’s your favorite TV show.    And here we have, un-imagining the things tying me to the chair at your tea party. And here we see the only fix for some things is to let them be buried naturally over thousands of years as multiple civilizations rise and fall over the same area. Where eventually someone finds ..read more

The following is an excerpt from A Completely Nonexistent Carnival by Cavin Bryce Gonzalez, available for pre-order here.   Went outside and stood in my front yard.  Waited to hear something. See something. Feel anything.  Waited for reality to prove itself. Gravitated naturally toward the gutter.  Heard sewage down there. Crouched down, peeked my head inside.  Felt at home for the first time in a long time.  Saw some beady eyes staring back at me.  Heard a squeak. Smiled.     I made a cake for the rats outside my house.  These rats are ve ..read more

Obligatory Orgy Poem polished wedding ring satin bodysuit mink lashes  glued by a girl at Sephora  who airbrushed my face  for free you want to be the hottest one she said and thanks to her I felt  contoured       masked lashed  to the yacht the skyline rough waters and watered drinks straddling in a corner  singing  happy birthday  my seasick love pretend it’s       just us  and when another man’s hand  reaches for mine  no I never want to hold it         &nb ..read more

  What life is this I didn’t know it would feel so much like living on a moon colony that I’d vacuum up so many dead ladybugs and get really into classical music that I’d strut around the graveyard in what people would call pajamas who knew show and tell would go on foreverthat I’d see videos of all my friends but never see them paintings rot in basements wild monkeys take over an old movie theater I eat an ice cream sandwich on my bed happiness is elusive but it does something before it dissolves I think about animals who’ve never seen a person and never will potentia ..read more

    When I think about you in prison, so medicated you couldn’t hold anything in, I want to kick the guards’ teeth in with my bare feet. And when I cough and you cower I realize what I want is not revenge but a new planet. Do we have to die to get there? Your dog farting on the floor, the sky turns white around us. The post Aubade appeared first on NY Tyrant ..read more

The following poems are from THE NEW WORLD, Kelly Schirmann’s new book, available now from Black Ocean.   THE NEW WORLD   The New World arrived when we were unconscious   It laid on top of the Old World like vellum paper and showed us what we’d done   There was no one to blame because everyone was an institution and therefore subject to rules   There were many new documents we felt compelled to sign   There was still fresh juice though we regarded it skeptically   The New World shined brighter / and was   Red became a color for the first time in decades ..read more

  Matters of All Orders She put the glass on the desk with too much force and juice splashed out.       Tth — she said, licking her pointer and middle fingers and looking at what spilled.       She went for napkins from the kitchen, but there were none, so she used a sweatshirt from the dirty laundry.       Laundry, she sang.       Laundry, something sang back.       She sat up straight, the small of her back suddenly beginning to sweat. The small hairs on her nearly bald head stood up too. Did it come from outside ..read more

The following excerpt is from ALICE KNOTT, Blake Butler’s new novel, available now from Riverhead Books.   At New York’s MoMA, Henri Rousseau’s The Dream (1910) is attacked with a straight razor by a local college professor of physics, who after screaming “I am the fuck of your reality” stabs the image of a full moon in the painting’s upper right-hand corner eleven times before restraint. A video, less viral than prior efforts, circulates briefly, showing police beating the man into submission as he attempts to struggle free, screaming over and over for his mother by her first name. And ..read more