Category: Side A

Side A Prose Poetry: “Another Pirate Story” by Brad Rose

Another Pirate Story At the pentagon, the holiday spirit is in full swing. Cannibalism tends to bring people together. Fortunately, I’m in touch with myself, although like opposable thumbs, I don’t take it personally. This year, Satan is doing my income taxes. He’s a likable enough guy, although he says he finds it too dark…
Side A Poem: “Anti-Ars Poetica” by Jonathan Memmert

Anti-Ars Poetica There is no poetry in a shrapnel wound that refuses to heal … No enjambment in a lifelong amputation / No metaphor inside the guns aimed & trigger cocked No simile flies from the aerial carpet bombings No alliteration as tank tracks cross borderlines No allegory hidden in a drone’s surveillance Mines laid…
Hybrid Work for Side A: “[THE JOB]” by Randall Le

I – GET [THE JOB] It’s been a while now but I sort of remember when the knowledge hit me. Man, you should probably be thinking about getting a job. Insane. Ridiculous to think that anyone could make it through college without having to think about that. “Do what interests you.” Just another victim of…
“Easy to Advanced Hand Puppets”: A Short Story for Side A by Dolan Morgan

Easy to Advanced Hand Puppets Introduction When was the last time you made a hand puppet? Or, for that matter, when was the last time you did anything? Something real. Be honest. Right, okay: then you might as well make hand puppets. And for that, you’ve come to the right place: an instructive, easy to…
New Short Comic for Side A: “Young Lions” by Hal Flower

Mini-interview with Hal Flower HFR: Can you share a moment that has shaped you as a writer (or continues to)? HF: While attending a series of screenings of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s The Decalogue, I came to understand that the writer’s aspiration ought to be clarity, not complexity. HFR: What are you reading? HF: Having recently finished…
New Side A Flash Fiction: “Don’t Look at the New Moon Through Glass” by Alison L. Fraser

Don’t Look at the New Moon Through Glass I put her superstitions away for later, when she had proven herself to be a ghost. Hand outstretched towards me, obscenities dripped from her fingers, her brain encased in cancer, her frontal lobe an abyss of dead matter, she told me not to leave her with that…
A “Test” for Side A: Visual Poetry by Valen Arcelo

Mini-interview with Valen Arcelo HFR: Can you share a moment that has shaped you as a writer (or continues to)? VA: One of the turning points that has shaped me as a writer was discovering the novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and the poem “r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r” by E. E. Cummings. Honestly, the first time I saw these…
New Side A Poem: Nathanael Jones’ “In the Absence of Language II”

In the Absence of Language II How will we say goodbye? You watch film after film and never notice that the music stops one moment and starts the next. I don’t think about it, you say. You turn your head away. A motor car peels through the corner of a cobblestone square; it is a…
Side A Poem: “Wrong Turn” by Paula Gil-Ordoñez Gomez

Wrong Turn There’s a dead catsprawled on the side of the road. No official burial ceremonybut woodchips and straw spread by snakes with a soul.The sky will be cobalt soon now it’s peach.Is there a blueprint for melancholy? I wish I turned the cat to the palm trees.No one should have to face their killer…