Or Musical Instruments Like the Guillotine…
Most people go to sleep at night. My insomnia screams like a leaf-blower of blinding blizzard hiding in the Siberian cupboard’s rattling snowplow. It grabs my keys then races along the freeway in a retro shoot ‘um up Western then shouts a loud bugaloo down Broadway using lip-liner sirens. It’s made of steel tacks mixed in the nine inch nails and rattles every ordinary tin roof scattering fluffy pillow feathers. It has no smitten eye piece but a starry sledge hammer of acid rock amplifier plugged into my tumbling dice. And when it really gets angry it smashes my glasses of...
Read MoreShopping
A nickel’s worth of starshine please, porter, and make it snappy A pound of roses for m’lady’s hair. A half-case of chewed-over indecision. I prefer shopping via wistful teleportation. I like it when the stores are closed, the window-dresser in the arms of dreaming, the security guard asleep in his chair. It’s midnight, ghost-shoppers pressing their faces up against the glass, in the thrall of wish-fulfillment. Need and want fight it out in aisle nine. The spirit of greed is rifling the coffers; the least predictable of bargain-hunters. Here’s a toy for your unborn children. Warm...
Read MoreFeatured: Week of Oct. 15
We spend at least half our lives in our dreams, and dream imagery is one of the most visceral ways of expressing our hopes, dreams, fantasies and fears. This week, join us for a trip into the dreamworld. Mark Joseph Kiewlak’s story, “Magic,” depicts a world where magic may be more than it seems. Bruce McRae’s poem, “Shopping,” takes a dreamlike look at the nexus of consumerism and desire. Maurice Oliver’s poem, “Or Musical Instruments Like the Guillotine…” uses dream imagery to illustrate insomnia. Sean...
Read MoreMagic
“I’ll cut you in half,” Todd said. “It’ll be fun.” Mariel doubted that. She doubted nearly everything these days. Which could get you into trouble. Big trouble. The world was run on beliefs. Not surface beliefs, like jumping off a cliff and thinking you can fly, but underneath beliefs. The stuff we believe despite everything we tell ourselves. Todd had the saw in his hand, and he was looking greedy. He needed miracles — needed to swallow them like candy. He’d always been like that. A miracle-eater. “Lie down on the table,” Todd said,...
Read MoreFeatured: Week of Oct. 8
Throughout the month of October, Wild Violet is leading up to Halloween by exploring some darker terrain, suitable for the holiday of spirits and monsters. In this week’s installment, we visit four dystopias. Richard Wolkomir’s “Swamp” takes us inside a secretive society living in American’s southern swamplands. Donna Marie Robb’s “The Banished” shows us a deceptively pleasant New Eden brought by eugenics. Robert Woolridge’s “The Debt Breakers” depicts a futuristic world ruled by banks. David Hancock’s...
Read MoreChum
Front lawns. Covered in vines. Out-of-control plants. Vegetables. Drip irrigation. Rain barrels made out of oil drums. Hoses running every which way. A model of self-sufficiency, you think. Might even believe you stumbled into paradise. But then you smell the pesticides. Artificial and caustic in your throat. Yellow-white streaks. Chemicals mixed with pollen. Washing out into the street. You get your personal ration, but everything else goes to the food bank. Collection trucks rumble down the street three times a day. You load your veggies into the recycle bin. Sorted by family: legumes,...
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