cb johnson

The Ultimate Dinner Party by C.B. Johnson

Nobody knew it but it was the eve of another historic money crash, the kind that has bankers jumping out of windows from great heights. Lucky Mackenzie was happy, but his [...]

March 19, 2016

In Which All of My White Ex-Boyfriends Simultaneously Run For President by Khaya Osbourne

May 29, 2017

the careless whisper, soft pair of lips, hushed ‘i love you’ that you threw into the night comes back to your [...]
Confessions of a Lunch Thief by Allie Marini Batts

December 1, 2013

I’m just like any other kind of criminal. I started small. In kindergarten. My life of crime can be traced back to a [...]
FOUR WAY INDEPENDENCE and other poems by Mark Belair

October 23, 2017

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 [...]
here is a list of things you left behind by Alison Leigh Znamierowski

January 4, 2016

10) purple clovers plucked & siphoned by hungry mouths on summer walks, discarded into roadside fields 9) a missing [...]
The Season Finale by Carly Berg

February 1, 2014

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. <a href=""> Read More... [...]
Vending Machine Press Issue #3

April 1, 2014

This issue we are proud to present, stories and poems from writers across the globe that explore the morbid longings and [...]
Two Poems by Daniel Ford

April 1, 2014

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 [...]
Pitiful by Jeffrey Zable

May 29, 2016

Driving home in a cold, pouring rain I spot this guy limping along in the street completely barefoot, wearing only a t-shirt [...]
Three Poems by Sloane Eliot Mariem

December 10, 2016

Heresy for the Nonbeliever / Mistaking Real Things for Shadows No refuge here, not with you no room for my veiled language [...]
Rolling Papers by Audrey El-Osta

June 1, 2015

it was papercraft + origami, it was incensory + aromatic. You made an art of it when you taught me how to roll my cigarettes [...]
Crushed Ice by Mark Belair

January 4, 2016

The old, downtown fish shop stands closed, and not just for the day, it seems: the rolled-paper dispenser empty, the shiny [...]
San Juans by Dede Cummings

April 1, 2015

From here she can see no islands, only a mountain beyond water mostly purple-black and defying the orange-spreading sky. [...]