Category: Flavor Town USA

“Shiny Shiny,” a Flavor Town USA short story by Mollie Schofer

When you live in a forest, there isn’t much to do but lie on your side and eat the open oysters offered to you by woodland sprites. (Open oysters are open like two palms cupping a skein of fresh-molted salamander skin.) Sometimes, of course, the woodland sprites are in a mischievous mood. They dust the…
Six Flavor Town USA Poems by Eddie Kim

Untitled(With Final Line from Roethke) An elegant and corpulent diner in Costco sweatsis dancing at this buffet—the way chopsticks can place piecesof amaebi in a mouth while pinching offtheir tails … The choir of heads keeps watch from a separate plate.The docking is smooth, decisive. Like a figure skater in practicehitting all the jumps. A…
“Requiem: Fin Inn,” a Flavor Town USA poem by Avery Gregurich

for M.T. Let’s debate ovals, acoustics, the moral virtues ofcurveballs. We’ll do it loud, live, staggering atopthe trusses of the river bridge. We’ll poke our facesin front of the lights off the dam for effect. A sunfloweron the shore will serve as moderator. First we’ll finish thesefrog legs, but I’ll give you cheap smokes, sure,…
Flavor Town USA Fiction: “Dangerous Soup” by Alicia Bones

Diner comment cards from The Wild Boar: “The soup’s the only thing I ever order because it’s the only food I dream about. Why do you have anything else on the menu? The soup’s the only thing anybody wants.” —Addie R. “It’s fabulous. He’s outdone himself. This is the best soup we’ve ever had!” —The…
Flavor Town USA: Five Capsicum Poems by Steven Ray Smith

Tabasco I repeatI was not named afterthat vinegary tincture you sluice upon your cackleberries You and I have not metbut let me say to you tooit was named after meAnd let me give you some advice Copyright patent and trademarkyour quirky relish and the cut of your compact jibbefore the patrons and partygoersand those with…
Flavor Town USA Fiction: “Cake Every Day” by Mike Lewis-Beck

Liam finds himself at a crossroads. His wife, Carla, has exiled him from their comfortable Iowa home, and he’s seeking solace in Oregon—Portland, to be exact, where he, a fifty-year-old Professor of Poetry, has secured a lowly visiting appointment at a local college. While that is a crossroads for him, it is not the crossroad. That crucial…
Flavor Town USA: Three Poems by Jennifer Martelli

We baked pearls made of denture material in a blueberry pie —Efferdent Commercial The first satisfaction is the fork breaking the flaky lattice crust. No, I’ve misremembered this commercial: the first satisfaction is this: the fork digs deep into the purple fruit filling, doesn’t break the dough, fishes deep down into the pie, the berries,…
“After the Hot Dog Eating Contest,” a Flavor Town USA poem by Avery Gregurich

for Dean Young I too have to start with a bite out of the middle part, the place in the record that isn’t music. Sweet drooling bits of black vinyl back onto the platter of hot dogs, waiting, patient between Surf and Stillwell, Coney Island. How do you take your dog to the vet without…
Flavor Town USA Poetry: “On Eggs” by Evan Williams

Scrambled poached over easy over medium over hard sunny side up hard boiled soft boiled screaming with tabasco with salsa with toast with ketchup omelette omelet omlet om nom nom let benedict pope benedict catholic eggs fertilized unfertilized Rocky Balboa eggs ostrich eggs emu eggs fish eggs caviar cavalier to spend so much golden eggs …