I loved the old room, though it was dim and ugly and old, stank of the pungent antiseptic soap we used to mop the mats and the brininess of sweat that couldn’t really be scrubbed away. It smelled like what it was: a box of straining bodies on a soft floor, blocked in by padded walls, a training ground that contained as much of yourself as you were willing to release.… more
Author Archives: BULL Author
The Genie
FICTION by R.M. CooperJesus, I thought. Treasure. Real treasure. I didn’t say a word to the neighbor kid. All I thought about was his snot hands and my lamp. I knew what I had to do. I picked up a clump of dirt, and I thew it at his head.… more
The Purveyors of All Hours
FICTION by Mitch JamesCollege isn’t for you. That’s not your fault. You didn’t build the American education system, but you want to be a part of it, and it’s not made for everyone. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s made to make all of you a certain way, and if you can’t be that way, you don’t make it through, and if you do, then you’re really fucked because you’ll be outside of this every-one-gets-a-trophy university, in a world that eats its young. That’s Tupac. The world eating its young. Not the Trophy thing. Write it down.… more
Beer and Sushi
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Josh OlsenI’m sure plenty of his friends’ parents stroll through his line, but I wondered how many of them had taken him to a concert in Detroit when he was 15, and if I was the first on a Saturday night, buying beer and sushi in a Dusty Rhodes t-shirt?… more
800,042 Little Lights
FICTION by Anthony Neil SmithWhat says “Christmas” more than a blinking, schizo forty-foot tall American flag with elves at the bottom saluting the drivers. Not the flag, no sir, but the drivers. Dead-eyed creepy elf fuckers robotically raising and lowering their hands to their foreheads. Salute!… more
Beach Rat
FICTION by Joshua VigilBeneath the raw flesh slick with ointments, I could see the ghost of his past self. He was beautiful. I told him as much. I said, Does it make you uncomfortable? I see it. Your beauty.… more
Cowboy
FICTION by Michael W. CoxThe house was dark by the time he reached the steps, no porch light, no downstairs light, but he could hear a radio playing somewhere nearby, something country, twangy. He stepped inside and, immediately, his mother called down to him to not turn on the light and to come up the stairs, she needed his help.… more
A Couple Tomatoes
FICTION by Steven VineisIf there was ever just one bird left in the shoot, it’d get pardoned. Let out to fly away. Makes you wonder what the truly guilty do with freedom. I’ve stopped pretending I don’t feel a little crooked about everything.… more
Suiting
FICTION by Alexander FredmanA week before, she’d up and left. I’d hardly gotten around to plowing my heart from where it hung. I was spending obscene sums at patisseries, flaking crumbs to the floor, buttering my fingers and suckling them to a sheen. I was already searching for something to forget.… more
The Seasons of Gilly Black
FICTION by Katy GoforthMole heard his mama talk about Gilly and how he hadn’t been the same since coming back from the war. Looked like she wanted to spit talking about their neighbor. No compassion. And his mama would never spit. … more
