Category: Side A

New Side A Fiction: “Her Fight” by Andrea Marcusa

Her Fight After she got the news, Emily went home, sank into bed, and tried to figure out where all her fight had gone. Some of it went toward her super, Sal, of course, the corrupt, bribe-taking, slime ball. The one with the ski house upstate. Emily remembers confronting him in her flooded apartment, after her…
New Side A Flash Fiction: “I Want to Live in Your Old Lady” by Christina D’Antoni

I Want to Live in Your Old Lady I want to live in your old lady, I messaged the woman on Airbnb. I hoped my phrasing might catch her attention amidst the booking requests, evoke a certain voluptuousness for life. A deep, deep need to stay in this very trailer on the beach. From the…
New Side A Poem: “In Praise of Point Break in 15 Parts” by Drevlow

In Praise of Point Break in 15 Parts 1. Gary Busey says, Surf’s up, ace.Says, Welcome to SeaWorld, kid.Says, Just act stoned and ask questions.Gary Busey has been a cop in LA for twenty-two years.And in those twenty-two years, two big things have changed.The air got dirty and the sex got clean, he says.Drum roll…
New Poetry for Side A: “Is Gone/Are Back” by Maria Fischer

Is Gone/Are Back Credit reports Are gone. Calorie counting Is gone. The addictions counselor Is gone. The scrip for clomipramine Is gone. Poor cell phone reception Is gone. Flying commercial Is gone. Spoilers Are gone. Capitalism Is gone. Jellyfish Are back. And not the crafted kind, crocheted out of discarded plastic bags, extensions left behind…
“What the body will say when you’re dead”: A New Side A Poem by Jeff King

What the body will say when you’re dead He swallowed pills abilify aristada atenolol benzodiazepine buspar chantix divalproex sodium lithium paxil warfarin zoloft zyprexa for thoughts that didn’t make sense for fixing a body He lived smoking a cigarette on the porch in the street in a portrait with ferns a portrait of placid water …
“Story”: Side A Prose Poetry by Wendy Taylor Carlisle

Story I say I don’t want to tell my story but it’s all I want to talk about. The husbands, lovers, one-night-stands, the sweet weekend-artists, I have to rehash them, have to describe that room in Antwerp that looked out on the Zoo—red walls and an hourly rate, across the place from where the railway…
Original Side A Short Story: “Fresh Start” by Jane Snyder

Fresh Start When the car broke down, Doug said it was the fan belt. It wasn’t a bad place to be, if it had to happen, close to a plasma center and a Union Gospel Mission. We’ll give plasma now, he said, then we’ll go to the Mission. Dakota asked why, if we’re getting…
Poetry for Side A: “I Don’t Know Why He Mumbles in Group” by Kevin Ridgeway

I Don’t Know Why He Mumbles in Group But he does. Maybe they are prayers forhis insanity to be extinguished. Either way,he’s always shushed by counselors for causinga distraction. He likes to offer erroneous triviaabout his favorite band, The Beatles—and healways stands corrected by others. After 30years of sobriety, the only coping skill he hasto…
New Side A Hybrid: “Were” by Kathleen Rooney

Were Purest verb of wistful longing: I wish it were Friday. I wish you were here. Yesterday we were studying and we were studying yesterday. Were and wer are archaic terms for adult male humans in Germanic cultures, often used alliteratively as in “were and wife.” Therianthropy is a fancy name for shapeshifting. If you…