Donna Hilbert: Ode to Purple
O eggplant, O plum, O yard full of iris,
O purple beanie crocheted by Aruni
O overblown phrases, and broken
and bruised, beating hearts.
Bring it all on!
Gerald Fleming: Two Somethings
He could have run marathons, triathlons, could have blundered through densest jungles barefoot, quick-macheted, and not been prepared for this. He could have caressed the skin of a hundred women or men, every texture, every shade, but now this….
Barbara Hamby: Trigger Tries To Explain
Aw, Dale, he didn’t mean it when he said I was the
best thing that ever happened to him. If he even said it,
chalk it up to the RKO publicity machine.
Video: The F-Word
A dad struggles to give an age-appropriate explanation of the expletive.
Bill Knott: Our Farewells Lack the Plausibility of our Departures (Three paintings)
Bill Knott ((1940 – 2014) was an American poet and artist known for his wild originality.
Miriam Levine: Ego Is Not Your Amigo: Cop to It, Mim
You love the language of Twelve Step meetings—
don’t drink even if your ass falls off,
shitty committee, issues in the tissues,
attitude of gratitude, stinkin thinkin, dry drunk
Abby Zimet: Lethal Petty Bigots ‘R Us
It turns out Harvey Milk was far more a warrior than either TACO Man or Pete Kegsbreath.
Joshua McKinney: World Enough
Someone is making a motion
to make a motion on a previous
motion, concerning the minutes
from the last meeting…
Meg Pokrass: Enlightened Adventures of Mark Zuckerberg
“Say, is that a dorsal fin in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?” she blurts, all seaweed hair, bioluminescent lipstick, wiggling like a stuck jellyfish— illuminating unseen caves of Mark Zuckerberg’s shipwrecked heart.
Charles Harper Webb: Flubadub Invents the Sixties
His elephant-brain conceived The Howdy
Doody Show, and chose what Old-Time
Movie played when Buffalo Bob pried open
his Hostess cupcake-with-the-surprise-inside.
Roberta Hatcher: My Highway 61 Revisited
Well at times ideas seem so absurd
But if you leave me in peace to play with words
I’ll give you something simple
Just a little rhyme
To amuse and to help to pass the time
Gerald Fleming: The Secret
The man had the sense the secret was planning escape.
Nate White: Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?
Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
Charles Harper Webb: Pants
Tempest Storm understood that what excites when eased off
slowly, creates horse-laughs, falling down.
