The Dandies almost ran a clean campaign against the chairwoman of the decoration subcommittee / They handed out red white & blue roses with little life hacks written around the stems like spells / Carry a pinch of salt in your back pocket for good luck & say aloud theContinue Reading

Alexis Blaire Zielke paints, writes and does 1:1 sessions with people, listening and talking about non-duality. She published her first book, The Nothing, on Halloween of 2024. The book is inspired by the antagonist of the Film, The NeverEnding Story, and is illustrated with drawings of endangered animals. The bookContinue Reading

Shove over, Dinah, and get your whiskersout of my tea. There’s not enough creamat this picnic for the two of us and I have dibs on the scones. Or maybe the scones are etherealand multiply, loaf-and-fish-like, and will serveme, you, and visions, too, if that rabbit flickers by, fob a-glinting.Continue Reading

Gosh what a couple of egg heads those Goths were / A real match forged in cartoonish annihilation / They were the talk of the neighborhood for the better part of the season & shook all the pine needles down to weave baskets for their Chinese-crested named Thing / ThenContinue Reading

Pried by persuasive light, flickering sun-dried eyelids, catch the flame of morning.Wake-up dust wells-up, in tear ducts of cognizance,spinning without moving. Digital clicks, after musical ticks, and red lights on a small black screen.Hangovers of comprehension, still trickling in,only conscious by concession. Grinding through gears, with growls of rust, andContinue Reading

I. Forest Blues The grab of trees is nothing.I’m hip to their enchantments,their impenetrable leavings; they oughtto be less obvious when calling the windsfor a ride. Their branches out them every time.There is always one struggling to smother a laugh,always a pair curving like arms, always a skeletalbeckoning, a threatContinue Reading

The chunk of flesh lies there.It’s pink and still,No longer throbbing or feeling.The thigh that birthed it is oozing,Pumping, still alive. The man sets the knife downAnd prepares the pan and herbs.Taken away from its origins,The meat is no more than a blob,A collection of cells,13,355 calories, more or less.Continue Reading

my cat considersmy body a locationhome embraces him Aletha Irby is very grateful to have been granted this time, on this planet, to spend with the English language. Her personal library includes books of poetry, books about cats (fiction and nonfiction), history books, novels, short story collections, mysteries, horror stories,Continue Reading

after Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” You’ve heard this tale a thousand times in a thousand different ways, but there was a girl thousands of years ago on some stupid island or peninsula whose face launched a thousand ships..The story starts, as always, with Zeus. Either it starts because he turnsContinue Reading

Dandies moved into Peacock Lane & put a sexy leg lamp in their postage stamp bay window / The HOA was pissed but could hardly do a thing to stop gentlethems from erecting sexuality like a lacy middle finger / The chairwoman of the decoration subcommittee made salted pistachio brittleContinue Reading