I wait for a curse, a sad and final gunburst before it’s time to leave. There are figs my mother gathered for breakfast, the sins of brothers that weren’t sins before chameleon-sprayed on the walls of Al-Jami al-Kabir, where the girl I loved sold carnations in the quiet light; her hair still … Continue reading
A friend of mine made out with Christmas, but I boned Samhain. It was like falling into a plane at 7000 miles per year. So much better than kissing a manger or worse. I don’t know. Someone married the Fourth of July. It ended in alcoholism. No one is born on birthdays anymore. It seems … Continue reading
The men stand, holding brooms, waiting for the madness to ring a bell. No one dares move. The night has teeth, teeth like God, a mouthful of God, filled with meat. Who left the door open? Nothing to be said. Just this congregation of testosterone near the refrigerator, tugging at hips, invisible holsters, souls … Continue reading
My creative writing teacher told me there are several titles to poems that will never be published. She put them on the board and dared us to even try. She said she had spent half of her life submitting “The Drunken Pharaohs Walk Out of Disney’s Tomorrowland” and that she has almost broken … Continue reading
I am a colossal heaping mash of gorilla shit gently roasting in a raging dumpster fire. I know you are too, but I will criticize myself since it is considered intolerant and oppressive to be as rude as your mother, may she rest in peace, and by peace I mean getting syringes filled with lemon … Continue reading
“Where are you?” * She always answers, q “With the wind.” Somewhere on the brink, somewhere in the end. * I try to give q chase q (a flailing mass of … Continue reading
Here I am, I am Albert Thompson. Home for the holidays, of course. Hello, Cove Road. Mother, father, family assembled, waiting— prime examples of performative adoration. Love is an expensive electric toothbrush: Painfully enthusiastic Makes you taste the blood in your mouth You can always hear its unpleasant murmuring. Christmas Eve Let’s all go … Continue reading
National Novel Writing Month—affectionately called NaNoWriMo by its users—is an international writing event. It was started in San Francisco the summer of 1999 and has grown exponentially since then to become a nonprofit organization promoting literacy and encouraging children and teens to write through the Young Writer’s Program. Anyone can make an account and it’s free to … Continue reading
If I were to ask someone about the literary merit of some video game’s narrative, I’d typically get either the blank stare of some worn academic or the confusion of a person who’s still seeing nothing but Pong or “Your princess is in another castle,” or a rolling bout of laughter. Narrative? In a video … Continue reading
“Basement Magic” “Do you really think that this will work?” “Of course it will work, stop worrying about it.” “Resurrecting the dead isn’t an easy task. Even necromancers only reanimate.” “Well, why do you think I brought the two of you here to help me?” “Even if we did—!” “I said it’ll work, okay? Just … Continue reading
Coe Review 