Olly stood on a chair in his studio with a noose around his neck. “I’ll never love again,” he moaned. He stared at the blank canvas in front of him. I love my paintings, he thought. But they can’t love me back. The empty canvas whispered: “Olly…” He sniffed and slipped off the noose, deciding […]

Does anyone knock anymore? Even at a friend’s house, an office, or my bedroom, I would knock. No one can be too careful. Everyone was out for you. That was what the news told me. That was what was on my mind when this guy just walked into my new apartment unannounced. “Hey, Cameron—” He […]

ONLY MUDDY BOOTS AND HELMETS CAKED RUSTING ROTTING IN STEAMING GREENHOUSES STICK UP FROM DECAYED REMAINS CAUSED BY DETESTABLE HUMAN ANGER VENT BY WORLD POLITICAL COMPANY FOUNDED ON INORDINATE DESIRE. STOP. BLUE POWDER SMOKE SIFTS THROUGH THIN LIGHT RAYS AMONG MANY OTHERS YOUR SON ARRIVED HERE TODAY SHORTLY AFTER MORTAR FIRE STOPPED ON PHENOM PHENH. […]

New poem by Aramis Calderon: “Loyal”

I’ve changed all the names in this story except my own. They’re all dead, but … that afterlife thing just might be true. I’m an old man now, but I was ten or eleven or so in this story. Across the road, lived Ben, six months my senior, and Timmy, six months younger than me. […]