Dressing a rock and roll chick for burial meant selecting ebony boots, slim black jeans, a silvery button down blouse, and a green beaded bracelet. I hoped she would approve of my fashion choices. I also hoped she would forgive me for not returning to the apartment and taking more of her personal possessions. She was not ready to part with them, as she was not ready to leave this life.

Mindy Ohringer’s politically charged short stories, essays, and poetry have appeared in Hot Flash Fiction, Terror House, the […]

I have seen the greatest neighborhoods of my generation taken over by babies of war heroes who grew up with silver spoons up their noses…

Read.  Create.  Submit.  Repeat.

The taste of depression wakes up my tongue.
I wipe the corners of my mouth, sniff
my hand, the rancid, toothsome, brine hints
from my skin.

An antidote to all the heat is escape.  And that is where Art plays an important role.  The Thieving Magpie has arrived just in time, flapping its big wings to help provide some cool air and escape from all that heat.

The movie I’m going to see with my wife and half-grown punk kids is the third installment of a cartoon franchise.  They’re embarrassed by me?  My mom took me to see The Godfather in Westwood Village 4th of July weekend.  I was nine!  Kids today!

Today’s totals were eleven for the left arm
and nine for the right, though one of those donors
choosing the right arm found out that they
were not successful in drawing any of his blood
from that arm

ML Paul’s work has appeared in recent publications of Pure Slush, Postcard Poetry and Prose, Black Heart Magazine, […]

“Do you follow sports?”

“Baseball, the Reds.”

“Who is your favorite player?”

“Joey Votto; he’s a very good hitter.”

La Llorona means The Crying Woman.  Her husband leaves or dies, and she takes her children to the river and drowns them. Those folktales don’t play.