Florida by Michael Zapruder
This is part of the ambitious poetry/indie pop project Pink Thunder.
How My Existentially Problematic Novel Unfolds
Out on the lawn, you spear the steak.
You show its black flank to the sun
like a bear examining a bit of gypsum.
Only he would not conceive
of it as gypsum, honestly, only
not-fish. Not-berry.
The first negative theologian
may have been a bear.
Your heart may be many bears
beating their bike chains
and tire irons together.
I can’t prove otherwise.
This is a democracy,
so it’s your word against
my science. My science
against this feeling that we are
often not alone when we are
often alone, I fear.
We are taking out the garbage
into the desolation
of some suburb,
but we don’t want this
in particular.
I ruin everything with my wanting.
You just go on spearing
in the dimming afternoon.
Spear the rib-eye,
spear the uncomfortable neighborly feeling,
and then really glare it down
like it deserves.
Your terrible bear heart
humbling me
with its solemn growls.
How it got in there,
I can’t testify.
I think I know what
is happening at this barbeque,
when I don’t.
All around me
teen melodrama unfolds.
Someone else’s terrible adventure
is just beginning.
*
Kyle McCord is the author of three books of poetry including Sympathy from the Devil (Gold Wake Press 2013). He has work featured in Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, TriQuarterly, Third Coast and elsewhere. He’s received grants or awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Baltic Writing Residency. Along with Wendy Xu, he co-edits iO: A Journal of New American Poetry, and he is lead content editor for LitBridge. He teaches at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX.
(via Matter Monthly)
I’m proud to announce that I’m now a contributing editor for Matter Monthly, an online journal that publishes political poetry and commentary. They have published work from some of my favorite contemporary poets, like CAConrad and Michael Robins, so you should check them out and sign up for monthly poetry goodness.
I waaaaaaaant it.
The haul from Printers Row Lit Fest!
(The two on the right are for my dad for Father’s Day.)
Only one book of poetry, unfortunately. I did sign up for a few journals that publish poetry, so we’ll see if I like any of them.
Our 5th issue (our first to be printed with color and feature comics and illustrations!) is now available for purchase through our website!
For only $5, you can hold a physical copy of the magazine in your literature-loving hands.
Featuring work by:
Victor Espeland
Cean Gamalinda
Howie Good
Kyle Hemmings
Liz Herzog
Isabelle Johnson
David Lewitzky
Luke Pelletier
Bob Schofield
Lily Shell
Jennifer Smith
Lisa Sterle
Matt Whitman
Em Young
Also, to celebrate our new issue, back issues of the magazine are now ON SALE for only $2. Snag the last few copies before they are gone forever!
- N/A
This is probably our best issue yet.
Pick up a copy today and support up-and-coming authors and illustrators!
Alyssa Michelle :): Do You Want My Opinion? By M.E. Kerr
The night before last I dreamed that Cynthia Slater asked my opinion of The Catcher in the Rye.
Last night I dreamed I told Lauren Lake what I thought about John Lennon’s music, Picasso’s art, and Soviet-American relations.
It’s getting worse.
I’m tired of putting my head under the…
I’ve been looking for this story online since high school.
Read it.
Congratulations to all of the artists and writers featured in Issue 5 of N/A!
Our Spring issue, released next week, will feature work from:
Victor Espeland
Cean Gamalinda
Howie Good
Kyle Hemmings
Liz Herzog
David Lewitzky
Isabelle Johnson
Luke Pelletier
Bob Schofield
Lily Shell
Jennifer Smith
Lisa Sterle
Matt Whitman
Em YoungIf you’re in the Chicago area, we will be having a release party NEXT WEEK, complete with poetry readings, music and more. Ask us for more information.
- N/A
Awwwww yeah.
Issue 5 is going to be a good ‘un. Be sure to pick up a copy next week when it goes on sale.
If you didn’t make it this time around, DON’T FRET. STOP YOUR FRETTING RIGHT NOW. We are still looking at all the submissions we received for inclusion in issue 6!
Congratulations to all of the artists and writers featured in Issue 5 of N/A!
Our Spring issue, released next week, will feature work from:
Victor Espeland
Cean Gamalinda
Howie Good
Kyle Hemmings
Liz Herzog
David Lewitzky
Isabelle Johnson
Luke Pelletier
Bob Schofield
Lily Shell
Jennifer Smith
Lisa Sterle
Matt Whitman
Em YoungIf you’re in the Chicago area, we will be having a release party NEXT WEEK, complete with poetry readings, music and more. Ask us for more information.
- N/A
Awwwww yeah.
Issue 5 is going to be a good ‘un. Be sure to pick up a copy next week when it goes on sale.
If you didn’t make it this time around, DON’T FRET. STOP YOUR FRETTING RIGHT NOW. We are still looking at all the submissions we received for inclusion in issue 6!
Sequoias
I want us two to see
the Steins’ collection
at the Met.
I want to write something
because I am in love.
Maybe let’s go to the Giant Forest
and see the Sequoias of Sierra Nevada:
they’re too big to throw your arms around
but big enough
to admire so let’s stand together
in awe of old age. If we lived
that long would we still
have to write and paint?
If we were Sequoias?
We could, side by side
and entangle
faithfully in mystic secret.
How short
3,000 years must seem to them.
- Vincent Maglori
Vincent Maglori is an English major with a mysterious minor studying at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. A recovering illiterate, he began reading and writing in his freshman year of college in an attempt to rectify and perhaps compensate for a chronic disinterest in literature instilled via the sure hand of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations 4 years earlier. Since, he has added a fancy for poetry, Willy Shakes, and Japanese literature to his list of interests, which previously consisted of comic books and manga, post-punk, jazz, and ambient music, Seinfeld, Odilon Redon, a few not so good movies, and not much else. He can be found at http://maglorious.tumblr.com.
This poem and more can be found in the fourth issue of N/A Literary Magazine, a quarterly collection of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, comics, and illustration from up-and-coming artists and writers.
To celebrate the upcoming release of our fifth issue, all back issues of the magazine, including issue four, are on sale. Support independent publishing and pick up a copy for only $3.
