Removal of the gold wedding band That’s the first step Securing it in a shirt pocket — Button closed. Hold the shell high Then slam it down on a steel pick Peeling away the green halves Cracked along the seam. Then pick out a blond or brunette From the gathered crowd Huddling in pairs [...]
The hardest part about the past, at least for me, is that you’re in so much of it. Remember that one Christmas when we were driving through North Dakota, which is mostly empty, and we passed that burned-out husk of an ice cream truck on the shoulder of the road? You told [...]
I was a student enrolled in Carlow University’s Low Residency M.F.A. program the day I met Lewis “Buddy” Nordan. He was scheduled to read at one of our events in Pittsburgh. Many of the other students had been excited about the event most of the day. Past students had come to town for the [...]
And she walks slowly across the deep grass. Back to earth she goes. The stems part before her legs and then gather again with a bow after her body. In furrows the soil curves. Under her feet stones patter in excitement, realizing their perfect shape. Organic agitation and a verdant genesis in the [...]
One night I ask you what you think will happen if our relationship ends. Am I feeling uneasy about our relationship? About our chances at whatever going the distance means? Maybe. But I ask you what you think will happen if our relationship ends because I’m curious. And because I think you’ve thought [...]
The new issue of Shaking is out now. It features work by Curtis Smith, Kristopher Jansma, Travis Kurowski, Emma Briant, Jennifer Taylor, Dana Staves, Anna Mavromati, Cameron Cook, Alexander Freeman, Patty Somlo, Susan Grier, Eric Ramseier, Stephen Hartunian, David Beckman, Jim Johnston, Traci Parks, Patrick Ross, and Bitsy Sanders. You can currently grab a copy [...]
The starter’s pistol punctured the air above the heads of the runners curled over like fetuses. Instantly they sprouted arms and legs. From his seat in the bleachers, Stan found it hard to tell which boy had made the best start. Nor could he pick out from among the eight brightly colored jerseys [...]
“It’s interesting to think that with copyright law, as suggested in Creative License, being less than conducive to artists who use collage technique today, that Andy Warhol would have had as much success now.”
“So much of my writing process, be it fiction or creative non-fiction, especially in the first drafts, is semi-conscious and largely intuitive, so a part of me was not trying to capture “desperation” so much as the total experience, as I remembered it years later, of being the oldest boy in dangerous neighborhoods, small and weak and afraid, but having somehow internalized that it was up to me to be the man in the house now, a role I was clearly unsuited for..”
My War: Killing Time in Iraq By Colby Buzzell Berkley Caliber, paperback The mission flag in Iraq has been lowered, and the last of the troops are on their way out. A war that has existed for a decent part of my life has come to an end at last. Apropos to this enormous [...]
