“Angel of NoirCon” by Ken Bruen

________________“Angel _______________________Of __________________________Noir _______________________________Con” ________________Life throws up a variety of people who create a stir in your life Some you have met in different guises, but they are basically the same model But now and again and very very rarely, you are given a person who lights you up In every sense Deen Kogan was […]

“Echoes of a Breath,” “First Day,” and “Ping Like a Dream” by Fabrice Poussin

“Echoes of a Breath” She did little, standing upon the snowy peak remembering the fires of times long gone but exhaled a kind breath of infinite grace. The earth too seemed to be alive with fire restful at last yet filled with great secrets and there, poised as a classic deity she remained. Arms […]

“Awoke by D-Ray’s B-Day Muddle” by Chas Hansen

“Awoke by D-Ray’s B-Day Muddle” for Dennis McMillan When the obits fall silent, dreams take up the slack I was lecturing labyrinthine digs in strait-laced Kansas. Rather, some whelp was ignoring me until Gary C and D -Ray Showed with drawls so rich we soon flowed like tepid syrup Towards a Brutalist lecture hall while […]

“The Silver Dagger” by Robert Cooperman

Silver Dagger—the Daughter “All men are false, so says my mother . . .”—“Silver Dagger,” American folk song Mother says I must give up the young man singing love songs outside our window, hoping I’ll run off with him, or let him in, though if I did, Mother would slice him like a ham, with […]

“Green Men on Horseback in Baltimore” by Clarinda Harris

On the circles, green statues ride like South American  liberators above the breeding vegetation—Robert Lowell, “July in Washington” I. Walking down the steep hill from the Washington Monument toward Centre Street, Kilo and I descend into a steamy tunnel of heat. July in Baltimore. John Eager Howard and the Marquis de Lafayette bushwhack green […]

“What Dora’s Daughter Did” by Charles Rammelkamp

“I mean, I know her from the neighborhood,” the woman in the manager’s kiosk at the supermarket said to the lady on the other side of the counter. “But I don’t know know her.” I was loitering by the freezer with the weekly frozen food deals. Stouffer’s Frozen French Bread Pizza, Healthy Choice Grilled […]

“Honky-Tonk Nights” by Robert Cooperman

Scottie always drank longnecks: easy to smash a guy hassling him or making a move on his woman, who wasn’t necessarily his wife, though Loretta didn’t have to know that, except she always did, when he staggered in skanky with beer and perfume fumes. Too much effort to throw him out or leave him: […]

“Poor Roy’s Picaresque” by Joseph Hirsch

The myth is that the knight fights the Dragon. The truth is that the Dragon teaches men to breathe fire, Obviating the need for knights. Taking this time machine to Brooklyn now, think of Poor Roy Luck and life against him. No, he wasn’t cross-eyed But other than that, he was fat, small, and bullnecked […]

“Why?” by Gerald So

Allie asked in a stolen moment why I joined up to fly. Leaving the ground for fun was nuts enough, she said. Why do it for war? I didn’t want to fly straight, I said honestly. Straight was too easy. I wanted to buck and roll. So what if cannons and planes shot at me? […]