Category: Side A

Original Side A Essay: “On the Boulder” by David Capps

On the Boulder Begin with the proposition that the boulder is not a mountain. That you are not so relatively small. The proposition that the boulder is not a mountain locates itself in space where the body is: arms reaching, fingers outstretched, toes secured in familiar footholds; familiarity through the matter of scale. The proposition…
Side A: “Winning Poem” by Bunkong Tuon

Winning Poem I try not to let it get to me.After all, what has poetry done for them?Did it stop the Khmer Rouge from makingGhosts of neighbors and family members?Did hands let go of sickles,Were throats spared?Did poetry fill ditches with lotusesAnd streams with fish?Did it bring back loved ones?What does it matter that my…
Side A Half-Sonnets from Now, Here, This by Ron Silliman

For Terence Winch & Ivan Sokolov ● Debby Harry listed as “someone you may know” on Facebook. The squirrel freezes along the trunk of the tree, barely breathing until the hawk soars off. The rot in Lenin’s tomb starts to bloom. She finds an empty pill bottle in the compost. The stanza begins elegant, ends…
Flash Fiction for Side A: “Anglers” by Dan Shields

Anglers We watch their suns drift like pulp to the bottom of the glass, these days between sleep and the gasp. We skim them like stones on a creek. These days we squat and moan—old tequila worms squirming in the bottle. A big yellow bus scrambles past the bones of a stop. Our stop. The…
Side A Poetry: “California” by Dara-Lyn Shrager

California The weeping cherry trees behind our housewere once no taller than kindergarten boyscolliding plastic trucks on a carpet of EZ grass.Now, giant leaf canopies block the sun.There’s just the lone dog out there, chasingsudden whips of wind. Deep beneath my collar,I feel cold. Hungry for those half-eatenbowls of Cheerios left bloating by the kitchensink.…
Side A Hybrid: “Anecdotal Evidence” by Edie Meade

Anecdotal Evidence I. a. A man’s hand amputated at the lumberyard maintains a distal phantom structure through pins and needles continually fingerpicking “Wildwood Flower”; more research is needed into phantom limbs as a grief of the body. b. Necromancy cannot call up legs blown off in Belgian trenches, in part because there is nothing to…
Side A: “Night” a poem by Brenton Booth

Night She says she has been thinking a lot about killing herself. How everything would be much easier then. She has tears in her eyes she can’t control, I know she isn’t lying. I think of our first date. Wandering around the Botanical Gardens just before it closed for the night. There was an exhibition…
New Side A Microfiction: “Opportunity Meets Preparation” by Andrea Marcusa

Opportunity Meets Preparation Why are you throwing out the Valium? They’re expired. I recovered the yellow pharmacy vial from the garbage. Inside, the pills look perfectly pink and round, only the bottle looks cloudy and aged. They are only four years old. You keep aspirin longer. That’s different. My husband likes to be accurate, knows…
A-Sides: Six Poems after Bill Evans by Mark Lamoureux

Re: Person I Knew for Chris McCreary Chasm crier cryall day long outsidethe jewelry store. Hand models with skullrings pluck heart stringsstretched taut by two poleswith drawn-on lightning bolts. Ears’ chic cry Mr.Knowalittlebit abouta thing called lovelornnostalgia for an old-school’s out for summer; get your whitechocolate skull crushed by Korybantesat low noon, beside the bladed gills…