I TOLD THEM I’d be the one to bring her down. Capiche? Fine, they said. Sure. You do that. But what’s the hurry now? Everything’s frozen solid up there. Capiche? It might as well be Ice Station Zebra up there and there’s no by God helicopter. I said that doesn’t matter and they said just … Continue reading The Burden
Author: Kyle Newman
Cheap Art
Summer is peak King — Stephen, not Charles or Frederik. I almost died swimming to the floating raft at Gilbert Lake. The moon is jerking me around. Stars fall out of the sky like doorknobs and in every dream I’m in an abandoned hotel in the Catskills. First love, too late — and now… what … Continue reading Cheap Art
You Just Want To Feel Better
9:37 a.m. YOUR DICK GETS HARD every time you pass a pharmacy, a car wash, a cab stand, a homestyle diner, or a Starbucks now because you usually find them there, standing in line for their nonfat soy no-whip Caramel Macchiatos and the pre-work is easy: some banter, some pointed elevator looks, some lingering casual … Continue reading You Just Want To Feel Better
The Right Angle Upward
after the movie, riding elevators down between three lobby floors: past the concessions and the bar which would serve us these sweet apple cocktails on Fridays between pictures when we were 16. the carpet the same as it was then, with probably popcorn rinds we dropped still in place: why would anyone vacuum a cinema? … Continue reading The Right Angle Upward
Mother Nature Rising
“TRUST IS A MUST!” The sign was hung on the wall along with other, saccharine yet somehow frame-worthy aphorisms. “Babies are Citizens Too,” was a nurse favorite and reminded occupants of their reason for being in the birthing suite. These precepts turned signage were passed down from Mother Nature to her citizens. Like the ten … Continue reading Mother Nature Rising
Spread Strawberries On A Sleeve
And you still tied to the buttery spread of a desert’s yellow light frustrated as your heel strikes sharp at the coarse-haired withers of your camel draped in Bedouin wool, stopping short, once again, to chew green shoots off a desert shrub. And me alone in a valley beneath this run of hills licking berryspread … Continue reading Spread Strawberries On A Sleeve
Can Furniture Affect The Soul?
THERE IS A TOWN in Central Europe where I have spent some time. For many years I enjoyed strolling down to a café nestled under a large willow tree. I especially liked the old wooden furniture which I imagined must have been perhaps 200 years old. The walls were painted a dark green and lighting … Continue reading Can Furniture Affect The Soul?
Small Mammals
The boss who expects more of you, is a small mammal, facing up to a bigger world. The people you love, are small mammals, living on a small blue rock, floating through space. We are thousands of miles from where we started, and no idea as to where we are going. There are no adults, … Continue reading Small Mammals
Gutting A Blunt
On break, I walk the dirt trail behind the library branch and sneak a smoke. There’s some wild blackberry brambles back here, too. I pick some berries off and annoy some birds because they want what I have; I want what they have; we’re all some sort of screwed up animal with a weak wing. … Continue reading Gutting A Blunt
Snack
I ate a can of sardines by the Gulf of Mexico— tin peeled back like a tongue. I felt envious eyes in every hinge of shell that would not close. My heels burrowed into the sand as if I, too, were something half-willing to be swallowed. The sea and land spoke over one another like … Continue reading Snack