“The Girlfriend Problem” by Matthew Sorrento
POETRY: “And I would kill for him, still would, ever since we met….”
Read More “The Girlfriend Problem” by Matthew Sorrento
Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon
Noir, crime, and mystery short stories, scholarship, and so much more
POETRY: “And I would kill for him, still would, ever since we met….”
Read More “The Girlfriend Problem” by Matthew Sorrento“My body is a situation, a dilemma. I haul it from place to place in this wheelchair. I am a dump truck of self.” 1. Back in the day, I heard that Mama Cass had died choking on a ham-and-cheese sandwich. In reality, eighty pounds lighter than she’d ever been, after two weeks of standing […]
Read More “The Dump Truck of Self” by Mitchell GraboisThe train of thought, my tickets of insight a quiet of the sleepers the tranquillity of this nothing. Then the carriage breaks out I sit inside a chaos, we commuters right alongside a somewhat crazy Absolute Disaster who is interested his own opinion. I experience true peace Not apart, nor together. Signals are red but […]
Read More “At the Junctions of Epiphany” by Les Wicks“Feem nwah,” Larry muttered, as if uttering sacred words, his tone hushed, as though in a church – or in a movie theater. A lonely middle-aged guy who spent his evenings alone in the repertory cinemas in Coolidge Corner or Harvard Square, Larry fashioned a purpose from his hobby, a cult for one, conjuring metaphysics […]
Read More “Noir” by Charles Rammelkamp________________“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 […]
Read More “Angel of NoirCon” by Ken Bruen“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 […]
Read More “Echoes of a Breath,” “First Day,” and “Ping Like a Dream” by Fabrice Poussin“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 […]
Read More “Awoke by D-Ray’s B-Day Muddle” by Chas HansenSilver 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 […]
Read More “The Silver Dagger” by Robert CoopermanOn 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 […]
Read More “Green Men on Horseback in Baltimore” by Clarinda Harris“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 […]
Read More “What Dora’s Daughter Did” by Charles Rammelkamp