Max Stone
You knew what I meant when I said
I saw a sunflower in hell
and good art sucks too.
That sweaty night
in my empty apartment,
I thought we were immaculate.
It’s all just a series of waiting rooms,
outdated magazines, plastic
plant arrangements,
water coolers glugging on and on.
Time is bottomless boring sludge.
I […]
Chris Belden
When I was young, my parents employed a housekeeper who worked five days a week. Cora washed laundry, cleaned the house, and, during the summer, often cooked lunch for me and my brother Richie. She made a grilled cheese sandwich that no one else could duplicate, though we all tried. She said the secret was in the butter, but we didn’t know what that meant. We closely watched her make the grilled cheese sandwiches but never noticed anything unusual about how she used the butter. It was a delightful mystery.
Richard Collins
Was it good for you?
I thought I told you to stop asking that.
I’m sorry.
And I thought I told you to stop apologising.
…
That’s better. I’m going to have to send another email to customer service, aren’t I? You’d think by now they’d have you figured out. By now.
I am aware of my shortcomings and have logged this piece of feedback. I wish to please you. Cigarette?
I thought you’d never ask.
Your silence and the absent look […]
David James Lamb
Insomnia is a literary disease. Those who have the best command of language seem least able to lay their head on a pillow and join the collective slumber. “The night is always a giant” said Nabakov, who could scarcely snatch more than an hour or two of rest back from each interminable night’s oppression. Ray Bradbury said of insomnia: “Sleep is a patch of death, but three in the morn, full wide-eyed staring, is living death! You dream with your eyes open.” Honoré de Balzac practiced a kind of self-imposed […]
This series reflects the magic of nostalgia through representations of my childhood hyperfixations. Our perceptions of past memories are made up of vivid visuals, overwhelming emotions, and a sense of pleasant simplification. However, to recall the past is also to experience the disorientation and dissonance of loss. Nostalgia has the power to transform loss and longing into something palatable, intriguing, and dream-like. Do we capture nostalgia, or does nostalgia capture us?
Watercolor and mixed media on paper. 13” x 9.5” […]
About the Author
Michael Lee Johnson lived 10 years in Canada during the Vietnam era and is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. Today he is a poet, freelance writer, amateur photographer, and small business owner in Itasca, DuPage County, Illinois. Mr. Johnson published in more than 1072 new publications, his poems have appeared in 39 countries, he edits, publishes 10 poetry sites. Michael Lee Johnson, has been nominated for 2 Pushcart Prize awards poetry […]