R.T. Castleberry – The Geography of Decline
The Geography of Decline Midday, mid-September, Sundays come down to patterns of salvation radio or Pay-Per-View. A lowland Atlantic storm hurries the scent of jasmine and river willow, carries the jumpy sound of rainfall and rolling water. My clothes and crutches are tumbled on the floor. A Shelton blanket pulls at stitches, black against raw […]
Carl Boon – Arkansas
Arkansas This is red clay dust on an Arkansas backroad. This is me telling you exactly what you want to hear: we wore corduroy jackets, their sleeves at our palms, and said black faces look better in the rain than ours. I don’t know what we were—I don’t remember how it felt to be called […]
Ace Boggess – Why I Can’t Draw Portraits
Why I Can’t Draw Portraits I suck at stick figures: they lean & sag like fuzzy old couples hiding out in their summer homes. I never saw myself sketching trees, saying Breathe, breathe, while I faked the leaves. Those pictures of rabbits in backs of comic books? The ones with captions like Are you an […]
Sara Backer – Such Luck
Such Luck My California single girl bedroom: cinderblock shelves, futon, paper globe light, wine bottle candlesticks coated with waxy stalactites. Lacking men to stay the night, I drank in bed. The more I drank, the larger my glass grew. I waded surf with cabernet in hand and yearned for love. Until I sipped and found […]
Introduction by Editors Bruce Boston and Marge Simon
Introduction by Bruce Boston and Marge Simon Spend five days in the park like you never have before. Travel the last fifteen years of Nikola Tesla’s troubled and unfulfilled life. Watch a small child fashion a golem from clay to protect her home from invading armies. Listen to its consciousness as it comes to life. […]
