Before Rhonda gave me dirty, funky love I had a cult of chia pets, I baked peanut brittle, and I sang in the falsetto register. But Rhonda took me below the stands and tweaked my nipples, poured Old Crow in my mouth, and dry-humped me senseless, while the marching band farted “Purple Rain.”… more
Author Archives: Ben Drevlow
Oncoming Traffic
FICTION by Darlene EliotShe tells me I’m sweet. My ex used to call me sweet when she wanted something. There are two things I can’t stand. Shoveling snow and being called sweet. I hate the last one more, but it’s not so bad in this weather. And it’s not so bad when the right woman says it and all you did was get her a bottle of water.… more
Baby George
FICTION by Colin GeeBaby George was six years old and always messing around in the street, riding his one-speed around, staring at people, shouting questions, offering unsolicited advice whenever you had your hood up. If there had been a hobo circle on the block, chafing their hands around a barrel at midnight, Baby George would have been there telling stories about his babysitter Esmeralda.… more
Sharp Out of His Body
FICTION by Jason GraffTake it to Roy just like your father did for every car he ever owned. When still young enough to want to go everywhere with Dad, he’d take you with him. The sort of man who thinks there’s something to be learned from simply being in the general vicinity of people who work with their hands and are good at what they do.… more
Two Stories
FICTION by AJ AtwaterMummy leans in during wood tick checks, hair in a loose braid around her head. She cups our scrotums. Bounces them. Tests our heft. Weights our worth in her hands. Cops a feel. Steals from us.… more
Yacht Rock Mentor
FICTION by Rebecca GransdenI see myself in the twin mirrors of Gino’s knockoff Ray-Bans. My doppelgänger reflections resemble a lead singer who got fired from the band three years ago and hasn’t been seen in public since. There is the sense Gino’s eyes are smiling behind his lenses. “We’re taking a trip,” Gino says.… more
Two Things Nobody Should Touch
FICTION by Scott T. HutchisonPlant life and animals began taking hold roughly 500 million years ago. So: useful knowledge has been passed on for a reasonable amount of time, messages for communion and survival. But Anders Parly hears about as well as a small-eared weasel, and he’s just as predatory.… more
Collision Theory
FICTION by Chrissy StegmanWe’d lost so much hope after Dad’s diagnosis we weren’t even Catholic anymore. No one would say it. That we were afraid. That we were freaking the fuck out. We weren’t so unkind to put a name on our suffering or even agree that we collectively felt sorrow.… more
Alas, Flask, is a Butterless Man!
FICTION by Teddy GriffithAnd of course she had asked him what he was doing that day, why he was just sitting there staring at the ocean—she had asked him twice. Once the day they got back from vacation and once on the day she left for good.… more
Trouble with Oranges
FICTION by Andrea BishopThe trouble with oranges materializes when it’s time to access the fruit inside. That rind, so useful at protecting the orange, is a terrible ordeal to get off. How can you bite into fruit to enjoy it if you can’t even get the peel off? You need to dig your nails in, even to get the first chunk out. It takes a real commitment to dig deep enough to get through all that white stuff.… more
