Vending Machine Press

We Bagged Sand All Night Until the Levee Broke and other stories by Steve Passey

I was trying to listen to the facilitator but the girl in the row in front of me turned and stared at me until I made eye contact with her. “Jesus,” she said. “Listen [...]

October 23, 2017

Science and Change and other poems by Sarah Sarai

I declined a knighthood honoring my heroic efforts at keeping heroism effortless, something I perfected while lateral-to-prone-ish, modeling a languid nobility which defined [...]

October 23, 2017

The Same Shine by Ernest Gordon Taulbee

The absence of a hangover made Samuel suspect he was dead. Last night’s moonshine had the perfect mix of burn and corn sweetness, so he drank it with the same regard lungs [...]

October 23, 2017

Innocent and Smirky by Paul Beckham

My mother always stressed good deeds but my other relatives seemed oblivious to the concept. I was required to do at least one good deed a week, as were my brother and [...]

October 23, 2017

FOUR WAY INDEPENDENCE and other poems by Mark Belair

FOUR-WAY INDEPENDENCE Try this at home: Sit in a chair and count out loud to four in a loop, then start tapping your right foot on one and two and your left foot on [...]

October 23, 2017

Snippet from Soft Opening by Alexandra Naughton

Playing with this power because I can and because it’s been done to me and it’s something I’ve always had and never thought to use or know how to use and I don’t even [...]

October 11, 2017

Remembrance Day by Bradley Sides

I’m first in line for Remembrance Day. I’ve been here since midnight. The announcement never said what time the gates would open—just that it would be early. Although [...]

October 11, 2017

says the same and other poems by Edmund Sandoval

Maybe I’m in love with you. I say this in a diner. On the train car. In the boulevard. She says the same. Probably we’ve got secrets. Or maybe not. Does it [...]

October 4, 2017

Interview with Jenya Doudareva

1. What was your early life like? Where did you grow up? I was born in Russia and lived there until my teenage years when I moved to Canada. My childhood was pretty cool [...]

September 25, 2017

Interview with Elizabeth Schmuhl

What was your early life like? Where did you grow up? During the week, when not at dance or school, I was out playing in the swamp behind my house. On weekends we drove to my [...]

September 18, 2017

Someday I’ll Love Meg Johnson and other poems by Meg Johnson

Even though she is a biological woman who wants to be a drag queen. Even though I read her diary and she confessed …………..Sometimes all you can do is [...]

September 11, 2017

Interview with Shae Krispinsky

What was your early life like? Where did you grow up? Early life was Western Pennsylvania, catching fireflies and climbing trees, collecting New Kids on the Block [...]

September 4, 2017

Mimicking the path we walk by Mike Bernicchi

Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow Peonies stagger paths worn in spots they were picked long ago to heal – Aged men squat [...]

September 4, 2017

Sight-Seeing New York City Fall 2001 by Jonathan Church

A blind man steps onto the N train at 59th Street. He turns his head and seems to wait for a stranger to gently grasp his elbow and show him the way. Someone does, guiding [...]

September 4, 2017

Thieves by Kelle Grace Gaddis

Sleep is a type of dying we enter each night. If lucky, we rise from our rest in peace, our pillowed tombs, to see another day, there are miracles all around me, thought [...]

August 28, 2017

I know an old lady and other poems by Robert Beveridge

snake watches spider watches fly another hour like this Linda Blair, Superhero For Carla Toptsidis Enchanted is not the word most would use for a first encounter covered in [...]

August 28, 2017

Grocery List by Elizabeth Bolton

There is, here in my hand, a small blue rectangle of grocery list like the looping invitation to a banquet that awaits and my finger pads press it rumpled and wet. You step, [...]

August 21, 2017

Morning in Portland and other poems by George Franklin

Orange peels on the plate, broken curls Of skin, scent of trees from Morocco, Spain, or somewhere else, somewhere other Than here on this smoke-gray morning in Maine. The [...]

August 21, 2017

Sea Shanties by Alicia Bones

1. Couple years ago, I bought a boiled crab off a man on the pier. I’d just started eating it when someone shouted, “Jerry’s fighting Bob!” Jesus, someone! I thought. [...]

August 14, 2017