The Incredible Melting Man
MELT ONE They arrived at the check-out line at the same time. Oops. Awkward, empty thought balloons. She pushed a full carriage; he held a quart of milk. “Go ahead,” she said with a quick gesture. “Oh no, no,” he said, shaking his head. “You go.” “No, please,” said the logic of her overflowing cart vs. his one-handed purchase. “Uh, ah…” And then he melted to the hard, scuffed floor, reduced to rivulets of green goo, and oozed under shelves of candy and tabloids. MELT TWO He was at work, standing at the time-clock, watching the minute hand. She was fanning...
Read MoreTranslucent Fire
You are with Savage at a ramen stall amongst a dozen other foodcarts that dot the river on both sides, the pink and lavender lights of the love hotels and soapy brothels of the red light district smear across impossibly radioactive waters, the Hamanomachi district, known for the densest foot traffic in the city, thousands of wandering husbands off for a night with Russian strippers, hostesses who charge sixty-five an hour to pour them cheap whiskey, straighten their ties for them and hold false conversations with their fake eyelashes, they come back week after week bestowing bracelets and...
Read MoreVerde
Oh the joys of foreign blunders, you once witnessed an Australian English teacher attempt a deep, respectful bow to the President of the ESL company, he began his greeting not facing him but looking over his shoulder from the side, so by the time he was fully bowing, his ass was more or less directed to the President’s face, the deviousness of his action so brightly hued, the green silence of envy perseveres.
Read MoreFeatured: Week of Nov. 12
As any writer or artist will tell you, inspiration can come from anywhere. This week’s featured contributors look at the process of artistic creation. In “The First I Heard of It” by Ron Darian, a young boy discovers he’s got a unique ailment. The poem “The Project” by Michael Keshigian vividly depicts writer’s block in architectural terms. Art is delicious in the poem “Dinner at the Museum of Fine Arts” by Suellen Wedmore. “Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful” by K.A. Laity is a proposal for an...
Read MoreDon’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful
A proposal for an art installation Materials * 100 mirrors of various sizes * Vinyl lettering spelling out the phrase “Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful” on each mirror’s surface Ideally installed in as small a space as possible that nonetheless allows viewers to be completely engulfed by images of themselves. Inspired by a story in notoriously misogynist publication The Daily Mail, where a conventionally attractive woman claimed that other women hated her for her beauty, and even more so by the vitriolic backlash against her piece,...
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