Author: Travis Shosa

  • Dodo Eraser Issue #1

    Welcome to Dodo Eraser Issue #1! For our launch, we’ve selected work from 21 excellent writers to showcase the imagistic diction, clever theming and emotional vulnerability that we appreciate in independent literature. We hope these poems and stories spark your imagination, make you laugh, or stab you in the gut: often two or three of…

  • Dr. PsychoSexSoda™

    Standing in line with a 6-pack of Heineken®, waiting on this fucking asshole buying lotto tickets to get the fuck outta my way. Nothing to do but sit here and look at all the bullshit behind the counter. I need to hurry up, get home, and type some shit. A few forms to get caught…

  • Two Poems by Steven C. Wright

    I’M CUTE! I’M NORMAL! I’M GRAZING A JUMPER CABLE AGAINST MY LEFT VENTRICLE LIKE AN ASYMPTOTE OR MY LAST SHRED OF PRESERVATIONA CATEGORY 4 CURVING AGAINST MY COAST BUT YOU MAKE ME WANT TO BE EASY TO FIND, TO BE EASY ON THE EYES AND WHO THE HELLARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO…

  • Two Poems by Ben Niespodziany

    Hungover Pilot America’s flooris full of checksstapled to ancientboards. To tearis to wake the prayingbear. To walk awaywith nothing might alsoget you killed. Pressure [1] Pressurebenefitsfrom morepressure.I don’t knowwhere Iread that.The weatherman is wearingnothingbut rain.We should help. [2] Did you hearthe one aboutthe gunmalfunctioningon set of that AlecBaldwin film?Chocolat. No, KindergartenCop. That’s the one.How limitedwe…

  • The Man with Adjectival Dysfunction

    He was impressive, in most ways—a sailor, a pilot, a cyclist, a good cook—But he made Hemingway seem verbose, and the fact that I respect Hemingway’s work without savoring it says a lot about why I only dated this man for two months. To be fair, he could appreciate rich language, but couldn’t use it,…

  • Environmental Storytelling

    i.Scattered poems in the old Food Donkeychoked out by the rust belt, chain-link playgroundbetween the bus and home. Somebodyspraypainted the town off its own map. All the lightson the hill decide to speakbefore the sun does. They havelives to live and diethriving.ii.One bench on an overlookghost vortexes & liquid pensRachel was here; ink smeared,cigarettes by…

  • I’m Naked On A Barn Floor Covered In Green Yogurt

    which is not a metaphor for fear, nor is it something sexual: only the reality of the situation. Josh is working on a photo series about rebirth for his capstone & I’ve volunteered as a subject without knowing what I’d really said yes to, which is why I’m on the cold floor for hours, the…

  • study of figure xii

    mother throws herselfinto the river drags across the currentlike a buoy blood advances into a weird love storywith the water —mothergrows daisies on the bankwhere she washed up after a dreadfulswim john compton (b. 1987), author of 18 books/chapbooks, is a gay poet/writer who lives in kentucky with his husband josh and their dogs and cats,…

  • Rogues

    1 When I got the call, everyone on the team told me I would have to learn Canadian, which I think most of them meant jokingly, but Jordan mentioned some girl from Quebec he met on Omegle who spoke French. “I’m going to Saskatchewan,” I reminded him. “Yeah.” Coach asked me if I really wanted…

  • Black Metal

    The first time I tried to quit drinkingI bought what must’ve been a palletof seltzer. It became an obsession, trying to do nothingto my body,nothing bad anyway although eventually I ended up switchingover to the ginger-flavored onesfrom Wegmans, which I’m sure have more bad chemicals. Listeningto the early Darkthrone albumsfrom around when I was born,…