Apartment #112 Set the beer down on the counter where the roaches play, stir the food. It’s night outside and in your heart and in your mind. A police helicopter circles circles above your head a halo w/ search-lights and you’ve become so holy you no longer notice. The bag briefcase dynamite you left the […]
Read moreAnthropomorphism | Changming Yuan
the sea smiling widely with every wrinkle open towards the morning sun, the trees balletting in the storm of summer, the birds chatting aloud, indeed, all is well as God is taking a nap, dreaming about becoming a human both in form and in mind, where nature imposes itself as a wild urchin and the […]
Read moreBanana-Fana Fo-Fana | Bruce H. Hinrichs
“The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers.” – Marshall McLuhan No one knew the city better than taxi driver Nicaragua Mars. Because of his multi-syllabic name, his friends just called him Nic. However, for purposes of this story we will call him Nicaragua, because it’s a much cooler […]
Read moreSat Watching | F. X. James
William Harris was sitting on his front porch, drinking coffee, watching the traffic go by. He did this every day around the same time, five in the evening or close to it, even on weekends, and he had done it now for several years. William, Bill to anyone who knew him, was nearing his third […]
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A Dress On A Mannequin | Travis Coover
Ingrid passed through the revolving door and into the lobby of the Harrison’s department store. A man with a maroon blazer and matching dress slacks greeted her upon her entrance, a thin moustache outlining his upper lip. He looked to be in his mid- 50’s, with dark hair that he parted to one side, and […]
Read moreThat Was Vermont | Sarah E. Caouette
Altruism brought on my mother’s cancer—worried so much about others, we couldn’t have an address or phone number listed in the city directory. For me, as a teenage girl, this was an embarrassing thing to be UNLISTED. My mother lost three students that year to gangs—mostly drive-bys and muggings. One found at home, where no […]
Read moreOverdose | Erin Kelly
He twisted slowly as if he’d been smacked in the face, and his eyes rolled into his head. Then he fell flat and hard, like a thousand-year-old pine in the forest, crunching on the forest floor. He was motionless and awkwardly positioned, like a hit and run victim, and soon his face turned white then […]
Read moreI Said I’d Make You Breakfast | Natalie Strickland
I knew you were hiding behind the shelf silent and bare-ass naked but I had important things to do like say I’d make you breakfast, but I forgot, because I saw the paint on the counter asking to spread itself on blank pages that I opened and shut, and opened and shut, til it looked […]
Read moreDestinations | Diane Payne
Standing in the long line, burdened by suspicious border patrol agents and a heavy backpack, I see Bob’s blue truck. It looks the same as it did the day he left Michigan for Oregon, a place he believed to be hipper, more appreciative of guitar builders. Bob’s old truck idled in the vehicle lane, packed […]
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VAGABOND CITY 