location location location - jeff shepard

                  they opened a new restaurant here in beaver, ut.
                  no one wants to eat there.

                  someone said the owner/chef
                 "ain't from around these parts,
                  he's gay,
                  has aids,
                  what if he cuts his finger while he's making you a sandwich"?

                  rumors fly,
                  he should have done his research.

                  to think he could stay in business
                  in this homophobic mormon town
                  he must be a dunce as well.

                  they didn't name this town "beaver" for nothing.

got arrested for public intox instead -Justin Hyde

when i was seventeen

dad drove me to a bicycle race

in illinois.

mom must have set it up

because he and i together

was not

normal protocol.

i ended up winning

and there he was

taking pictures.

i’ll never forget

his knee high socks

and cut off jeans

leaning over the curb

with the camera.

six years later

drunk off my ass

at a strip club in davenport

for my best friend's

bachelor party

one of those places

where you bring your own cooler

and fold dollar bills

like tents.

i don't know why

but being there

made me want to call dad

and tell him

i remembered that day.

how it was important to me.

someone gave me their cell

the bathroom stall didn’t have a door

so i huddled in the corner

and started dialing

when i remembered

he was supposed to be the one

eventually

making a call like this.

how i was going to hang up on him

when he did.

Frida Kahlo - Melanie Browne

Today, some

Vines grew

from my 

chest,

thorns wrapped

themselves

around my neck, 

bloody arrows

lanced my 

heart and

my spine

became a

broken column,

but,

you should

have seen

me yesterday

Craigslist>Personals>Missed Connections - Melanie Browne

I was sitting across from you

at the Beaumont Shoney's

we made eye contact,

you must have been hungry

because you cleaned your plate,

I really like the way

you eat your chicken fried steak,

I heard you singing

that new Enrique Iglesias song

as you were leaving,

I like that song too,

it's weird how Its been stuck in

my head for days,

you looked nice in 

your too tight levi's

let's meet somewhere 

for coffee or maybe back

at Shoneys,

My Boyfriend's on vacation, 

and he doesn't need to know

faint as sledge hammers -steve calamars

my good looks bring

cold stares from

hot tempered women

with frozen hearts

and smoking bodies

their mind games feel

less like brain teasers

and more like blood sports

with the bruised egos and

broken hearts

so out of necessity

i keep my guard up

and my pain threshold

even higher

till these women are

reduced to practically

pole-vaulting over my

defenses to hurt me

with their love

and i'm able to counter

with ghost-written words

that create phantom pains

faint as sledge hammers

that simultaneously

shatters their confidence

and splits

their personality . . .

(featured in

beggars and cheeseburgers

issue #3)

Jim Took It -Mike Meraz

we never thought
he would do it
but it was just
sitting there
with the key inside.

all those nightmare
years of past
could be taken
care of in one instant.

he was taking out the trash
when low and behold a
2009 Lexus SUV lay idle
on the side of the street.

the man who owned it
had gone in the store
for a minute
but when he came back
it was gone.

all the store employees
said, "Jim took it."

and everyone
laughed in unison
as if a great trick
had been played on
the devil himself

or the fates had
finally done right.

he punched the accelerator
for the I-10,
lit a cigarette,

he was gone...