depression – Page 2 – Vending Machine Press

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: There will probably be factors about this that make [...]

June 20, 2017

Homeward and other poems by MJ Santiago

I thought I remembered digging into your soft sides, dripping splinters on the ground. And after that a hole remained. We could see straight through, from our cracked bed [...]

June 13, 2017

Stomach language by Ashlie Allen

I don’t want to sit down. My stomach is roaring, but my mind is roaring louder. “Don’t go close to them. They think you’re weird.” Carrying my books, I flee to the [...]

June 7, 2017

Lush by Deniz Zeynep

……………………………………………………….lush Lux peach [...]

March 28, 2017

Crying in Cars with Ghosts by Maggie McEvoy

Footsteps follow me in the parking lot, looking back I see only dead leaves turning in the breeze —it must be the ghosts. See I’d just finished crying with them in the [...]

March 9, 2017

Lies to Tell the Body and other poems by Alyse Bensel

To become the opposite of orgasm, I practiced ………..breathing with the cyst nestled in my left ovary, where the pelvic ………..bone juts up to [...]

March 5, 2017

Over and other poems by Donna Dallas

Damn girl. Look at you. Who made venom so thick course through your blood? The cold flow of winter is in you. Blue blood, blue eyes, dead heart. Too many footprints over your [...]

February 12, 2017

Prosperity and other poems by Anna Keeler

Second wave feminism and a Sexual revolution Too forward to Keep buried in your pants. You learn what it’s like to have To have an existential crisis With a construction [...]

February 11, 2017

He Seems To Take A Masochistic Delight In Comforting Uncomfortable Truths and other stories by Alex Antiuk

I have an entire drawer filled with empty pill bottles. I am tempted to take the drawer out, dump it on the floor and count each individual bottle. I don’t know why I [...]

February 10, 2017

POKÉMON MOON and other poems by Graham W. Henderson

POKÉMON MOON the defiant day moon overpowered by the sun who lights it anyway the deferent day moon tries to touch its host theater of the night moon here on the beach all [...]

February 8, 2017

classifieds and other poems by Chloe DeFilippis

you took my shredded skin / wove it into baskets / sold them for $$$ couldn’t protest cuz my voice’s been ground into fine white powder you pack into little baggies / you [...]

February 7, 2017

post-inauguration poem by Shy Watson

it is a saturday night i am at a strip mall dunkin donuts in south philadelphia in my pajamas i am Irrationally Mad about the dumb things & not angry enough about the [...]

February 6, 2017

The Wall of Hearts Desire by Donna Lynn Marsh

I always wanted a wall. Actually, I wanted four. They hold roofs really well and who among us doesn’t want a roof over one’s head? I’ve dreamed of stone and brick [...]

February 5, 2017

The Squirrel Incident by Jenya Doudareva

A dead squirrel was laying in the middle of the sidewalk. Cause of death – unknown. Folks running around on their morning business in sombre palette suits, as per [...]

February 4, 2017

On Donald Trump Tweeting that Meryl Streep is One of the Most Overrated Actresses by Amy Saul-Zerby

This year we learned the difference between shock & surprise & maybe too late, but who would have thought, if given the chance to think? who would realized the [...]

February 1, 2017

Richmond Ennui by Christine Stoddard

You used to scour the rag shops in Southside, ………………..where black families lived in trailers [...]

January 30, 2017

Another Word For ‘Birthday Hamster’ by Laura Pavlo

There were one thousand “e”’s in the “please” Lucia’s son sung into the pet store window as he furiously pressed his fingers against the glass at a [...]

January 29, 2017

The Salt of Our Bodies is the Salt of Our Rhymes and other poems by Steve Passey

In the salt of our bodies Is the salt of our rhymes It comes out of us hard It comes out in our speech This depression is not like the last one No one has holes in their [...]

January 22, 2017