Music – Caustic Frolic

Double Bass

by Paul Smith

The bass guitar tiptoes
around the roadhouse
hears a shotglass
keeps on going
no one notices him
Only when he stops
circles the liquor store
on a moonlit night
and listens
shakes his head and moves on
to the apartment building
creeps up the stairs
opens the door
at last
finds the drums
doused in mascara and rouge
waiting for their rendezvous
he lives for the ride, the snare and the cowbell
but what drives him
what quickens his pulse
what stops his heart
is the Hi-hat
her backside swaying
like a flower as she gets up and
struts so he can follow her
like he always does

About […]

Clavichord in the Trailer Park

J. David Liss

I was walking from trailer to trailer, making sure the connections between the mobile homes and the network interface boxes were clean. We were one of the few trailer parks that had offered Internet service since the early 2000s, and we hadn’t upgraded from Ethernet to Wi-Fi.

When I felt like getting out to the country and away from Queens, I visited Uncle Nicky’s park in Riverhead. It was pretty country, nothing you’d think of if someone said the words ‘Long Island’. […]