Clockwise Cat / Gold Wake Press

Issue 15 of Clockwise Cat is out, containing three pieces of poultry (thank you, Alison...). They’re from a suite I wrote a while back, called, well, “Dead End on Progressive Ave.” Also in this issue are the wonderful Ethel Rohan, Reynard Seifert, Nathan Tyree, Nathaniel Tower, Felino Soriano, and many many others. There's also some crazy-bananas artwork by Jeff Crouch here and here.

Also, over at Gold Wake, Zachary Bush has a new echap up called "How This Man Breaks," along with new echaps by Sarah K. Bell, Michael Bernstein, Felino Soriano and Juliet Cook. Peep game, yo...

Tracking Lawn Enforcement

I used to think those paper snowflakes we cut out in kindergarten were actual size, then wondered why I never saw one.

Scissors were just a metaphor, why picket-fence paper dolls holding hands were so easily cut from the peaceful protest of friendship’s perimeter.

Years later I read some magazine article about sweatshops and wondered why those teachers needed us to make those snowflakes.

I wanted to know what countries were in the market for winter.

Where in the world would demand cold weather simulated for lack-of-supply’s sake, bought just because it could be sold?

Then I figured out school was just probationary, a trial period to single out those better suited to enter the workforce, as our “foremen” sent performance memos home to our parents.

And the hinges on those scissors were just latches on the gates where the weakest, unoiled aspects of our union could creak open for mailmen to walk safely across the freshly cut grass and reach those boxes.

And that’s maybe why shoveling became a law—

Otherwise they couldn’t deliver without leaving a print.

Energy and Matter

When I don’t get any email for a long time, like, responses to submissions, I start getting all paranoid that editors all over the United States are conspiring against me, sending secret emails to each other, saying: This guy’s an idiot, or This kid’s garbage, or No one talk to him ever again. I waste a lot of energy on this.

When I’m scared of something it helps to think, What are you worried about? This doesn't matter, or it won't in the long run. There's nothing to worry about or be afraid of. That makes me feel better, until a moment later when I think, Shouldn't this matter? Why doesn't this matter?

Adult problems are much bigger when you’re an adult. When you’re a kid, all you have to worry about are things that’ll big mess you up for the rest of your life, causing all your adult problems.

I’ve never been interviewed. I imagine having a microphone allergy. Shoved into my face at a press conference, a bouquet of them’ll make me sneeze. I’ll blow my nose. I’ll lay down in the grass on my tummy. My chin on my hands, legs bent up at the knees, feet crossed in the air, explaining myself to the flowers. When I’m finished they’ll ask too many questions. I won’t know how to respond.

Some Things

Spilt Milk is off to a good start. J.A. Tyler has a great new piece up over there called "of nails." Warm Milk Press also has its first print chapbook coming out in February 2010, David Peak's Museum of Fucked. Submissions are open for Spilt Milk, so do it up.

Mel Bosworth's chapbook When the Cats Razzed the Chickens will be dope. It will.

Ethel Rohan's story "Gold" up at Wigleaf is really good, as is her postcard. I'm also big digging Matt Bell's "Cain, Caleb, Cameron."

Roxane Gay's stories at Hobart and HaHa Clever are sick.

Brandi Wells' stories in the new Ghoti are really good. Also in this issue are poems by actress Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Legend). That's crazy-bananas.

David Erlewine's three stories in Necessary Fiction are really good.

In the new Pax Americana I really like this story by Molly Gaudry. Jimmy Chen, Sam Pink, J.A. Tyler and many others, too, have some great work there.

Skydive

There are so many people in the world.
I don’t know if that makes global warming worse.
The world’s maybe a big gymnasium.
The more humans breathing, moving, sweating, the hotter the gym gets.
Doing the parachute in gym was my favorite when I was little.
The whole class working together, lifting the parachute up.
Two of us would run under it, switching places.
The parachute became an umbrella.
I look up at the sky and it becomes an umbrella, then a parachute.
Then I become a puppet connected to strings hung from the parachute.
The sky’s falling, and it’s my parachute so I’m falling with it, from it.
The world controlling my movements, skydiving onto a mattress.
I’m seriously thinking about investing in General Motors.

News from Planet Pear Noir! / Leaving The Zoo

From the editors at Pear Noir!:

The lineup for Pear Noir! #3 is finally complete. Our list of contributors is as follows:

R.A. Allen, Eric Beeny, Andrew Borgstrom, Megan Boyle, Ron Burch, Edmond Caldwell, Jesse Cataldo, Jimmy Chen, Evan Cleveland, Ryan Dilbert, Russell Edson, David Fishkind, Roxane Gay, Ben Greenman, Bridgette E. Hahn, Mickey Hess, Christopher Higgs, Robert Hinderliter, Lily Hoang, Emily Hockaday, Rich Ives, Kendra Grant Malone, Sally Wen Mao, Chris Moran, Dan Moreau, Jay Pabarue, Michelle Reale, Andrew Reger, Katelyn Romaine, Peter Shippy, Noel Sloboda, Lee Minh Sloca, Chris Smith, Curtis Smith, Garrett Socol, Audri Sousa, John Dermot Woods, Barry Yourgrau, and Postcard Single Series: Audri Sousa and Kendra Grant Malone

This looks like a lot of fun. I'm big looking forward to it...

Also, unfortunately we've left The Zoo, and now we take a long, sad trip home in the dark, falling asleep against the back-seat window. We'll wake up better for having gone...

Spilt Milk / The Medulla Review / elimae

It’s November 1rst, which means three things:

1) The inaugural issue of Spilt Milk is up, featuring two chapters from my novel Lepers and Mannequins, "Accessory" and "Display" (thank you Ben, Jen and Kyle…).

2) The inaugural issue of The Medulla Review is up, containing, among the likes of Ethel Rohan, J.A. Tyler, and Adam Moorad, two small chapters from The Immortals Act Their Age, "Frontal Lobotomy" and "Abandonment Issues" (thank you, Jennifer…).

3) A new issue of elimae is up, including, among the likes of Howie Good, Sean Lovelace, Andrew Borgstrom, J.A. Tyler and many others, a tiny chapter from The Immortals… called “Attendance” (thank you, Coop…).