Milk Crates by Melanie Tague
I watched you once sitting on the bench by the courthouse, staring at the ground and I whispered that you were missing the night sky but the hum of the crickets drowned me [...]
Articles by Vending Machine Press
Turtle and Hare by Chloe Clark
If loss were a mathematical concept— a subtraction, a division, a formula for invisible numbers, then how does one calculate their own sum? What losses are quantifiable? [...]
Two Poems by Daniel Ford
the subway On the metro today, Red line between Metro and Union I saw a girl Who reminded me so much of you I looked four times. She was beautiful but tangibly sad, pained as [...]
The Cooks Alphabet by Ken Poyner
I am having my way with the waitress. Her dress is bunched up about her waist and her panties are dangling at one ankle, not merely twisted to the side. She is on her [...]
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 muffled voice of the conductor followed as the [...]
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 been inundated with so many impressive stories from [...]
The Space Between The Stones by Ian McCormick
He held onto a small vase supporting a single stalk of bamboo, and decided that it had to go. There used to be more. Another stalk at its side, as well as two smaller nubs [...]
White Cards by Aliya Whiteley
The rooms of the British Museum are organised journeys into stone, clay, gold, bronze, sorted by time and catalogued by the white cards that tell their stories. This necklace [...]
The Season Finale by Carly Berg
George, I realized as we turned onto our street, had ruined my life. His eagerness to play big provider made it too easy to just be a mother. Our daughter barely looked up from chatting with her new dorm mates when I waved good-bye. Now I was nothing.
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Leah’s Other Self by Daniel Thompson
The first shouts come from her little sister. “Leah, Leah, Leah.” She hears her sister but convinces herself another Leah is being called. Her other self born into a [...]
Times Square 1960 by Mark Pritchard
I haven’t been to a joint like this in years, but this is where Feldman is appearing. The faded lobby is strangely over-lit, with the ghost of a popcorn stand. Like most [...]
Reconnecting with Mira by Prachi Jain
From: janya@yahoo.com To: miracares@yahoo.com Subject: I Am Sorry Mira, I have been thinking about you for a long time and today when I write to you I feel I should [...]
Welcome to The Very First Issue of Vending Machine Press
We live in a time of diverse mediums and expressions where literature online has become a thriving creative form transforming the literary firmament. Vending Machine Press [...]
The Repercussions of Clipping a Parrot’s Wings by Matthew Dexter
Last night, I loaded the pipe with freebase and watched the Houston Astros balling through the rusty rabbit ears. Ocean orange, fluorescent lime-green lizard licking rheum [...]
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 it was just me and my cat Eloise. My father was [...]
When She Was Good by Siri Williams
“You wanna know what the problem is with people around here?” The cigarette between her lips muffled her words; her fierce eyes fixed upon me with a typically unnerving [...]
Hindsight by Peter McMillan
Street level in the financial district it was dark and the streetlights were still on. Overhead the sky was blue and sunlight glinted off the windows of the upper floors. [...]
Confessions of a Lunch Thief by Allie Marini Batts
I’m just like any other kind of criminal. I started small. In kindergarten. My life of crime can be traced back to a natural-foods loving mother. It was lunch after lunch [...]
Coffee Stains by Christina Murphy
Carrying a Starbucks Venti with double cream down the steps, he trips, hits his head, and the coffee spills out into a small brown river. Tiny figures—maybe faeries—skate [...]
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