A Flash Book Review of ‘50 Barn Poems’ and Brief Interview with Zac Smith

My mother once jumped off a boat into a swarm of jellyfish. Why did she think they would not sting?

We heard something Anglo, unhinged, too human. We’d been hoping for Shrimp killing Cow or Cow killing Shrimp, but it was you, Bitcha, flailing and teetering about in the night sky.

Sometimes, he gives me tips. Most of the time, it is this: “Take your time.”

I awoke no more than ten minutes ago and already so much has been consumed

Toward the end, when heart disease had already taken my father, and my mother was alone—which she found intolerable—her doctors felt she had dementia. But I knew that was not the case. She had always

She had us trade cardigans. She said it was an exercise in empathy. 

I used to write in circles. Starting in the center.

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Apart from all these violent events, Raziel, De Kuff, and the other cult members have been moving between Jerusalem, Safed (site of the ancient

He was in love with his friend Faye, had known her since elementary school.

If you get this far, that means that things are all, more or less, going according to plan.

I was only doing what she asked:  Not listening. 

The Christian Movie Theatre is mainly for fans of poorly translated morality tales, the violent ends of saints and so forth.

Despite your better judgement, you click on his profile and then on the most recent post: a picture of him smiling on a white slope with his arm wrapped around a remarkably average, yet still somehow traditionally hot (not pretty, just hot) snow bunny.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Wedding

1.    The bride was beautiful. 

2.    The bride was beautiful 
in the way brides are—
intricate updo, professional face.

3.    The first thing my

The next day, I woke first and made French toast. I had a teenaged hangover, buzzing and giddy.

The story of religious mania and the story of political violence look very likely to converge on each other.  Having consciously elected the first, Lucas keeps being drawn, sometimes unwillingly, sometimes unwittingly, toward the other. Both feature his new inamorata, Sonia Barnes.

Power Lines

Spring was coming to its sap-sticky end when
you were telling me something about how they carve out
tree branches to make room for power lines.

You were moving out of your house

I count the number of murderers in the class.

There was something that she wished to start, and when she started it, she figured, her life would take on new meaning. But in this moment in time, she ate breakfast bars all hours of the day and worried about money.

swang

at night i sleep next to you, your skin balmy course. like grinded down sweetgum made smooth in the sweat of the mississippi delta summer. you tear and bend at my will. your spine disjoints

Nick your shin shaving, stare idly at the blood coursing down your foot and down the drain, and maybe this is how you do it, empty out all your insides until your shapeless skin is all that’s left.

There is a universe of existence we have no words for, and maybe that is why we sequester ourselves in naturally quarantined cities: fear of the unknown and unintelligible.

I wanted to be “that girl,” but my new high-waisted pants from the Marais were already unbuttoned once.