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I am my own planet by Meg Johnson

I don’t suffer from night terrors, but if I ever do, I hope I scream out, Neely O’Hara! I could scream this out while masturbating. I’m masturbating for Mormons. They [...]

November 22, 2020

Quietning Man by Sheldon Lee Compton

What helps is to have a total lack of curiosity. That’s what he told them. It was the first time in seven years he had said more than a single word in response to someone. [...]

November 17, 2020

The Price of the Ticket to Heaven by Raphael Maurice

Stay & hold me & these suffering hands. For I won’t be long. I will not remain unread like a book for God does come & blows the dust from my back & says [...]

August 14, 2019

Psychic Mountains Ten Thousand Feet High by Sheldon Lee Compton

Clifton’s home is the same as anywhere; curses and miracles happen in the same small steps, and the difference between the two are twin mysteries. But it’s not the same, [...]

August 8, 2019

Coffee and Cigarettes and other poems by Benjamin Blake

Coffee & Cigarettes Sometimes, life doesn’t seem so bad A pot of black coffee brewing on the kitchen counter Cigarette burning peacefully away in the ashtray One soul, [...]

March 1, 2019

Sore Spirits and other stories by Ashlie Allen

Sore spirits The reservation spirits are sore again. They need our energy. Mom locks the door, useless as it is. We can hear them crying as they stagger towards the porch, [...]

February 22, 2019

The wine label as poetry 3 by Lindsey Thaden

The wine label as poetry, 3 Ingredients for fermentation: Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara Smashbox Halo Perfecting Powder Urban Decay Vice Lipstick – Backseat That black, [...]

February 18, 2019

A Small Bestiary Within by Raphael Maurice

[A Small Bestiary Within] They want a sweet country boy, tender, true as hell. At least they seem to, they do, until failures mark up his face. Until his tail even, is short [...]

February 18, 2019

The King of Hearts is the Loneliest of Kings and other poems by Steve Passey

The King of Hearts is the Loneliest of Kings Scars and Tattoos: Every scar is a story; a tattoo is just someone else’s art, so The King of Hearts rests on my shoulder. [...]

February 18, 2019

Off Season & Real Image, Lens, Virtual Image by Jenya Doudareva

Off Season Sticky heat, sounds of electrical lines, traffic, commotion – all gone. The blue of the sky is crispier, the trees are fiery red and orange, and it’s [...]

November 26, 2018

A Victory by Raphael Maurice

The ocean was black near the shore and farther out a storm was massing in the sky. He sat, looking out over the water, looking up aimlessly at the night from the tiki bar, [...]

November 22, 2018

The Heart Is an Organ on Fire by Sheldon Lee Compton

Tracy had sensed Bruce was different but had been too interested in his company to see any sign of it early on. The church carpenter shook her hand, the last load of old [...]

November 15, 2018

Leaving Deneb by Jenya Doudareva

Two deer along the trail yesterday. First, they hesitated as I passed them – muscles tensed and ears on alert, but eventually decided against fleeing, evidently, and [...]

April 18, 2018

Autumn leaves and other poems by Alison Znamierowski

Autumn Leaves with Pictures we opened each other like maps explored, traced our fingers along every outline, got utterly and joy-fully lost and at last convinced ourselves we [...]

October 23, 2017

A Blossoming Storm Shades Reality and Insomniac Act by Alexis Bates & Logan February

Some physical existence & the yearning, always. Sky, jaw-wide, hurtling fictions to the ground. Witness this descent in slow motion, this deft dive & this graceful [...]

October 23, 2017

Splintered Love and other poems by J. B Stone

Our love used to be this cozy little cabin Secluded from the irrational drama The world throws at others Our love wasn’t strong enough As the cabin started to split apart [...]

October 23, 2017

The Unmaking of a Savior and other poems by Khaya Osborne

i am an unsovereign, yet abandoned nation. my capitols have all their own names but look the same: faceless, skin thin as the lesions left by raw flax leaves, their cheeks as [...]

October 23, 2017

ACQUA DI PARMA and other poems by Frank Rubino

Not that green afternoon, when walking by a taco truck near Montclair High School, I felt a bird drop a load on my forehead. It was like a squeezed-empty toothpaste tube. [...]

October 23, 2017

Nightswimmer Poems by Todd Mercer

Hazard Warning, Ludington Beach closed, high surf warning. Turbid storm waves churn out there six or seven feet. Unsafe, they say, but now’s ideal for me. I leave the car [...]

October 23, 2017

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The Prescription by Jenya Doudareva

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Past Contributors

  • Two Poems by Helen Picard

    Rusty Rood From the second floor window, the red roof of the house next door reflected A strange, rusty glow at twilight. In [...]
  • four dog track poems by B.R. Yeager

    Milky Way I was too high and the customers could tell. Negating the cold water rubbed into my eye sockets. “Having fun, [...]
  • At Least by Jennifer Saunders

    The pills that stop the crazy kill the words No mania, no voice An empty shell exterior A med muddled mind existing until [...]
  • Wrigley Field by Mike Lafontaine

    Wrigley Field was a like second home to me when I was a boy. I grew up in Deerfield, Illinois. I had no brothers or sisters [...]
  • Planting Flowers and other poems by Paul Wiegel

    Each one blooms a beginning. They look like white teacup tops, or like a lobes of the brain with all those tucks and folds [...]
  • The wine label as poetry, 1 by Lindsey Thäden

    CHIM CHIM CHAROO-VINEYARDS Gold Label Reserve Chom Chomerlot MAHASKA COUNTY 2015 A drop of our Dutch vintner’s robust [...]
  • Green Light by Lauren Jonik

    “Stand clear of the closing doors, please.” The familiar recording echoed throughout the subway car. As if on cue, the [...]
  • On a Photograph Never Taken of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Friends, Manhattan, May 1, 1920 by Benjamin Goluboff

    Fifth Avenue had been cleared and they drove Stanley Dell’s Buick twelve blocks down the parade route before a cop [...]
  • Vending Machine Press Issue #2

    We would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported Vending Machine Press since our inception last year. We have [...]
  • A DATING PROFILE THAT HAS BEEN PARTIALLY FILLED IN WITH A SMARTPHONE’S PREDICTIVE TEXT FEATURE and other poems by Linette Reeman

    [after Madeline Lessing] My name is: HELLO BEAUTIFUL I AM ALIVE TODAY AND PHEW BOY AM I DOING SOMETHING WRONG My age is: [...]
  • the trial will resume tomorrow at 10 am by Cassandra de Alba

    all the landmarks of my childhood become a toy town, a diorama of bad decisions. the places I grew with wrenched from me, [...]
  • The wine label as poetry 3 by Lindsey Thaden

    The wine label as poetry, 3 Ingredients for fermentation: Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara Smashbox Halo Perfecting Powder [...]
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