DISMANTLING THE PIANO by Jonathan Fink Almost a year to the day before my wedding, I find myself spacing tools (wire cutters, gloves, a drill, pliers, and a sledgehammer) across a blanket in the soon-to-be guest bedroom or sitting room of my house. An aging upright piano rests along one wall. The piano’s height is … [Read more…]
THE BURNING by David Salner I had been stacking forty-pound ingots in the heat, working to the point of exhaustion. I walked to the open furnace, attracted by the way it shone in the darkness, fascinated by the peaceful appearance of the liquid, so ordinary, like a pool of water. This was my first shift … [Read more…]
INSTINCT IN THE ABSENCE OF THOUGHT or THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE DROWNING CATERPILLAR by Joey Poole Recently, in the midst of a brutal July heat wave, I noticed that my azalea bushes were being absolutely skeletonized, eaten right down to the stems. A closer inspection revealed that the bushes were crawling with a horde of … [Read more…]
THE ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE AS TRIGGERING DEVICE by Dean Bartoli Smith I. “Discovery is the ideal. . . . When not writing a writer may search for a triggering device, and literature is one of several places to find it.” – Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town At a meeting of the Downtown Poets Club in San … [Read more…]
EXCERPT FROM THE CARTEL by Taylor Branch This is an excerpt from Taylor Branch’s Byliner Original The Cartel CHAPTER TWO Founding Myths FAME AND CONTROVERSY have been constants since the birth of organized college sports. A newer factor, relatively speaking, is the institutional control of wealth by adults. In 1859, players from Williams College accused Amherst … [Read more…]