edward birt

You are what you eat and I’m not meat by Edward Birt

Bacon. Ham. Sausage. Steak. None of this gets on my plate. Chops. Chorizo. Squid and offal. Divine to some, to me just awful! “Why?!” folks say – “Meat’s so [...]

February 23, 2017

scars and other stories by stefan lutter

February 22, 2017

Dim lights and crowded room shoes scuffing and embarrassed cell phones. Prominent man, stands, emphasizes his [...]
Prodigal by Michele Madigan Somerville

September 2, 2016

When the clock strikes, the masks are delivered. I pause in a doorway, a shade, a champagne glass in my hand. Station stop: [...]
Milk Crates by Melanie Tague

April 1, 2014

I watched you once sitting on the bench by the courthouse, staring at the ground and I whispered that you were missing the [...]
Autobiography by Deirdre Coyle

June 1, 2015

I was born in a haunted mansion upstate. We moved. I lived in the South. I learned witchcraft in my sleep. In a dream, the [...]
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 [...]
Two Poems by Chloe Clark

May 29, 2016

All the Tea that My Creepy Heart Desires Lapsang souchong, oolong, or maybe pu-erh, tasting of hay, of smoke, of the sun [...]
An Inauguration Poem As Ghost Written For Donald Trump and other poems by J. Bradley

January 26, 2017

I thank thee, third party voter, for putting your ethics over your country. I am here today because of you. These last eight [...]
Coffee Stains by Christina Murphy

December 1, 2013

Carrying a Starbucks Venti with double cream down the steps, he trips, hits his head, and the coffee spills out into a small [...]
It Always Rains by Tim Wilkinson

June 1, 2014

The small room lay quiet, cloaked in shadow and smoky haze, silent save two voices and the occasional, solid clank of steel [...]
post-inauguration poem by Shy Watson

February 6, 2017

it is a saturday night i am at a strip mall dunkin donuts in south philadelphia in my pajamas i am Irrationally Mad about [...]
Two Poems by Kayla Rae Candrilli

November 1, 2015

Pater Familias: Way with Words He waves from the sepia-toned dock, the folds in his Army uniform crisp. Forty-five years [...]
Vending Machine Press Issue #5

August 1, 2014

Dear Readers, Welcome to the new issue of Vending Machine Press. The quality of the writers we have encountered so far [...]