Welp [Found Poem among Yelp Reviews of a Local BBQ]
“Our meat was cold.” “He simply smelt it and walked away.” “Like stepping into a house of horrors.” “The smoke flavor haunted me 4 days after my visit.” “Mother…
Ceci n’est pas une pipe
This is not a pipe, said surrealist painter Magritte about his painting. It looks like a pipe, convinces you, makes you believe that it is a pipe, but you…
Summer’s End
She came to me three times last night. Padded across the carpet +++and hardwood and in a voice so clear she sounded like fresh river water said, +++Mama, I’m…
Salamander Fiction Contest 2022 Results
Winner "The Other Osama," by Hassaan Mirza Second Place "Good New Teeth," by Mark Doyle Finalists "Driftwood," by Josie Tolin "Flame Jumps the Gap," by Matthew Gordon "Inheritance," by…
Translating the Language of Terror: By the Bridge or By the River? by Amy C. Roma
By the Bridge or By the River? by Amy C. Roma (C&R Press, 2021). “Refugees didn’t just escape a place. They had to escape a thousand memories until…
Rally Your Humor and Your Rage: Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby
Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby (Penguin Books, 2022). When I was in high school, my friends and I plotted revenge. Some strange guy had groped one…
Nirvana, an End to Suffering: Dear Damage: Essays by Ashley Marie Farmer
Dear Damage: Essays by Ashley Marie Farmer (Sarabande Books, 2022). Twenty-eight years ago this April, the musician Kurt Cobain jumped the fence at a Los Angeles recovery center,…
The Storming of Forestswarm
He called it the new house, but it was very old. The landlord wouldn’t say exactly. He’d said it was built in 1920 or 1900 or, once, “the late…
Eulogy for Bao Bayun
Today we mourn our great leader. A loss of great consequence: how hungry our stomachs, how boring our stories, how cold our campfires will be. No one knows when…
One Fight after Another
Dolores, nearing the end of her second ambulance shift of the week, sits in a plastic lawn chair outside the back of the fire station. Between calls she often…