Apology of the MacGyver of Gaslighting By G.R. Tomaini (2023)   I I am sorry that I got you . . . addicted to Heroin ; But your susceptibility — is not my responsibility . . .   II I am sorry that I got you . . . addicted to Xanax ; But your malleability — is not my accountability . . .   III I am sorry that I got you . . . addicted to Adderall ; But your fragility — is not my liability . . .   IV I am sorry that I got you . . . addicted to Crack Cocaine ; But your deceptability — is not my inflammability . . . V I am sorry that I got you . . . addicted to Klonopin ..read more

The Stork   One afternoon I spoke intermittently, but  mostly listened to Robin talk from Crane,  Indiana, about whether to have the child or not have the child she carried, a fetus  a month old. Her parents didn’t know, I was the first to hear of.  I walked a paved path adjacent a four-lane road, phone to my ear.   The sky overcast, no threat of rain, close to me, planted evergreens, to go with the walk. On the other side of the road a Stripes, then a white-steepled church, like a wide V, at a  corner. Thinking of its shape reminds me of the Vietnam memorial ..read more

By Chris Brownsword Known to everyone who stayed there during its glory days as ‘Heroin Hotel,’ and before the police shut it down as part of a citywide drugs bust, the Hotel Baltimore was notable for two reasons. Firstly, it was a boardinghouse, not a hotel. Secondly, its location was four-thousand miles from Baltimore, in Berlin.  Still, no complaints were raised over false advertising, with free board available to those who didn’t mind mucking in a couple of hours each day, sweeping up outside or scrubbing toilets or doing laundry, or a variety of other menial tasks. This also go ..read more

make something happen i’ve noticed  that life  goes by  if you don’t  make something  happen.  it doesn’t  think about  you.  i could sit  for days  wallowing out  my window,  watching people  conquer  their ambitions  while it  all just keeps moving,  leaving you  behind.  unless  you get out  ahead of  it  and make  something  happen,  it’ll  pass you by like a gust  of wind. stroke of optimism i’m just  a dumb guy  from pennsylvania ..read more

Ode To The Sun I O , that we could bask , like Mars . . . in a universal day , but , you , Sun , have learneder designs , for us folk . . . on Earth ; let us folk , proclaim your . . . qualities divine , and , emulate you . II O , Beautifier , who in generosity ,  aims to garb the world in Sunshine , whose touch amplifies landscapes , and , allows for chaos to be reigned , and for order to preside all the day . III O , Destroyer , bringer of fire to the . . . burnworthy , gaseous sphere , ball ,  whose glare razes deserts , yet not , in tirades too hot for life to flourish , for w ..read more

By Steve Passey The song is ended, but the melody lingers on – Irving Berlin   On any crew in any of the electrical, drywall, roofing, painting and – especially (in more remote parts) the seismic exploration trades, there will be those on the crew who have spent time in prison. These are the places you can get a job right out of prison. They’ll take anyone. We don’t care if you smoke dope on the line, the line boss on the seismic crew would say, it makes the day go by. On the long drive to/from the line on a seismic job, a man, who had no front teeth and who spoke with an infl ..read more

By Alexandre Petion I've always found the idea of being a suitor rather horrifying. In fact, no other prospect has entirely steered me into such absolutist, satiating thoughts of saliently flagellating myself… enchanted fantasies of safely removing myself from the gene pool, of dedicating every moment of my life to becoming the ultimate specimen of abusrdist temperance and chastity. It always appeared to me that physiological, sentient life must be the byproduct of gnostic uncaringness—from a rather embittered and bratty god. To include anything further of this world from its gaseou ..read more

Memory Brought About by Trump Being Found Liable for Sexual Abuse and Defamation The day before the 2016 Election, both Clinton and Trump held their final campaign rallies in Grand Rapids - Clinton at Grand Valley State University, and Trump at DeVos Place.   I went over to the Clinton rally after work, and didn't get in - I stood in line until I got fed up, and left. Nothing particularly notable happened, though there was one dude holding a sign claiming that he was a Gulf War vet that Clinton, using her Illuminati surgical training, had personally implanted a microchip into his brain b ..read more

By Mitchel Montagna Gold didn’t like most of the little creeps at the summer camp for Jewish kids in Port Jervis, N.Y. He had one of them, Kaufman, squirming under the sole of his boot.  Gold dug his heel into Kaufman’s scrawny chest hard enough to make the boy think he’d never breathe again.  Just four days earlier, an unemployed Gold, having abandoned home and trouble, had been hiking on Route 52. Gold moved aggressively along the white-hot road, carrying a small duffel bag of clothes and smoking a cigarette. Gold’s hair was long. His face was hard and flushed, containing cal ..read more

By Kendra Marie Pintor You’re not sure how the bags under your eyes got there; with time, or all the rubbing. Fingers smudging the sleep, staining your skin, a permanent side effect of exhaustion. This human shit just never stops, your soul says, though not in so many words. The soul doesn’t speak so much as it feels. Brushing your teeth, washing the dishes, shaving your legs, arguing with your husband, sitting in traffic, paying your bills, making the bed every morning, grocery shopping, cooking, sweeping, scrubbing, breathing, inhale, exhale, every damn day, for an indef ..read more