Author: Travis Shosa
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Red 100 Days
Mr. M says the wordfor zinnia is baek il hong,red 100 days. In the new Donkey Kongyou can descend a mountainby punching straight down. When the flood happened,Senator Ted Cruz was once againon international vacation. I am red 100 days. In the morning, on purpose,I turn inside out. The grackles seem into it.Aubade of degloving, exposedfascia…
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Two Poems by Damon Hubbs
The Butcher’s Mistress so much has happened since my last letterthe MFA discussion, for oneBridgerton, the spectral disco of Charlotte Gainsbourg burning a 500-franc note on the record player, the wealthy scrambling to leave Dubai Dear Cinnette, whether or not the fruit of repentance is worth the pilgrimage, idkI want to reimagine the worldas a choose your own…
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Ode to Club Sandwich
A questionnaire asksHave you lost interest in thingsthat used to bring you pleasure? It’s the opposite, really. Thingsare no longer interestedin pleasing me. Ladies and gentlemen,the future is between two pieces of bread.As we speak, a board is convening around a long oak tablefor the quarterly meetingwhere they cut things from our lives. They vote…
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The Vanishing
(Knowing more about Nancy Guthrie than one’s own parents/grandparents) Magic-marker advice I found taped to my forehead:If grandma is abducted and she is-n’t recognised or her family are losers/Nobodies—in your micro or macro nationsOr those others that occasionally guest star—, She’s fucked, was never there—What, grandma? What grandma?—. Another disappeared disappearance,An abducted abduction. Sorry, but,…
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Sorry, Barbara
Before I pulled muscles in my neck just from reading a book, I would sit on my bedroom floor and rip the heads off of Barbie dolls, yank off their legs, and impale their heads onto their perfectly pointy feet. And then they would be The Leg Ladies— Perfectly horrifying,terribly chic. No wonder my mother…
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The Dating Game
I picked a serial killer on national TV because I wanted attention. There’s no cleaner way to say it. Most people prefer the version where I was naive and impressionable. Young or tricked by shady game show shenanigans, but the truth is smaller and worse. I just wanted 300 strangers to look directly at me…
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After the Plane Crash, My Parents Facetime Me to Make Amends
Not without agendas. Mom calls first, lagoon blue sky with towering, diamond spires in the background and a fluffy cloud floor stretching on forever, hunky himbo angels flitting around on dove wings—two toss a beach ball; one strums an acoustic guitar, softly crooning Janis Joplin’s “Lord, Won’t You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz” (my Mom’s…
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In a Sentimental Mood
It was a real party all right, with bongosand foghorns and this crazy Turknamed Oz who kept groping all the girlswhile the Indian kids all danced like seaweedto the various loud rhythms producedand grooved on, the bassplayer thumpinghis bony chest but the Austrian girllooking bored as always—at least untilthe neighbors complained at midnightabout the noise and trampled…
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Two Poems by stephanie anderson
with love, public servant i laughed by the copier in the center of the librarywith the lanyard on my neck and his papers in my handsit was the day before the holidays and i was sick of being the tentpole of my own mistakes and neededto be the bitch instead so i made this tremored…
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Fresh Prince of Ballynanty
The wheels on the bus go round and round. Round and round. Round… …and round… *** O’Brien’s has a pool table. It’s got a counter where you can rest your elbow on to take it all in while ya shout abuse at Peader the Bull sittin’ in his usual corner beside the jacks. He’s some…