INRI

by Mike Lala

A name is something
     you can’t crawl out
from under.

It binds you
     to yourself.

Is that what
     Christ felt
in the garden?

Did his cup
     say this
Is your blood?

“I am
     what you say
I am.”

That was his
     moment of Truth.

A name is something
     you can’t crawl out
from under.

It is nailed above you
     until someone
lets you down.

Michael Lala grew up mostly in the western United States and Tokyo, and studied writing in Michigan. He currently lives and curates the critically acclaimed, seasonal reading series Fireside Follies in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and is assembling a forthcoming volume of poems for Knickerbocker Circus Publishing. His work has appeared in the Red Cedar Review, The Offbeat, and elsewhere, and his collaborative photo project with Katelan Foisy, Lie & Indite, can be viewed at lieandindite.tumblr.com. He can be reached at lalamichael@gmail.com.

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Untitled

by Tisch Abelow

click to enlarge

2010
oil on canvas

24 x 18 inches

Tisch Abelow was born in Maryland in 1985. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a BA in Liberal Arts in 2007. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her website and her blog(credit to DK, her blog partner).

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General Electric

by Brian Correia

Lately, the rattle of my fridge has been keeping me awake.

Where I live I have to bring my own fridge
or rent one. You know
the kind with a microwave attached.
I have a tube TV.

I was prepared for a year of warm beer,
for doggie bags with early expiration dates.
“Sell by twenty-four hours after the meal.”
But Aaron, he lent me his fridge.

For two weeks I slept soundly
before it reared its ugly head. Bad vibrations.
Did I put it in the wrong spot?
Did I stick it with the wrong magnet?

I've removed, from its top, everything:
The clock radio, the plastic containers.
The clock radio still goes off.
The cold cuts still are cold.

The fridge rattles.
I put it at the foot of my bed.
In the middle of the night
I give it a kick.
Sometimes that does the job.

Brian Correia is about to graduate from Northeastern University with a degree in Computer Science. His email address is brianmcorreia@gmail.com. You can check out his cell phone snapshots, MSPaint art, and some other stuff on his sporadically updated website.

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1923

by Claudia Acevedo

he sits on a piece of wood
cracked as toenails
protruding, yellow glances of the Depression still in his cup,
which reeked of cranberries and vodka.
when I woke on Monday morning
his hands were copper and full
with grapefruits and melons he bought from his friend the domino player
and the Oldsmobile would ride proudly, coughing,
to school with me pressed and clad in blue polyester.
the hand wave sneaking through the car window
said so much about the brown in my eyes
and the sunflowers that grew in his garden.

Claudia Acevedo was born in Puerto Rico. She moved to New York in 2006 because she’s a masochist. Acevedo now lives in Astoria with her two goldfish, interns at a literary agency, proofreads the fiction section of The Brooklyn Rail, and transcribes interviews done by people further in their careers. She needs a real job, so send her an email at caclaudiaacevedo@gmail.com.

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How to Make Mistakes

by David Winter

Don't do it the way you did
the last time. Inspect each bone
holding you upright. Remove
the most shapely one. Notice
its absence from your body
as you dance. Don't do what
you did before you were born.
No number of warm assurances
will protect you from sharp joy
or its precursor, a shadow
whose touch tints your cheeks
scarlet. Don't do it the way
you were told more than once.
Trust in your oracular organs,
so often silenced by facts.
Don't do it as these words
instruct. They are the silt
of a lived river, unheard
proverbs worn hollow by use,
a careful composition sung
in entirely the wrong key.

One of David Winter's poems recently appeared in Feast of Fools: Poems, Stories, and Essays on Sacred Fools and Tricksters (Sacred Fools Press, 2010) and another is forthcoming in The Shop. In February he will begin leading a writing workshop for gay elders through New York Writers Coalition. He would love to hear from you at dvdwntr@gmail.com.

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HEAVY CLEANER

by Louis Johnstone

click to enlarge

2010

collage with paper and paint

Louis Johnstone is an artist located in Brighton, England. He has a tumblr called Alien Pisshead and a music project called Dem Hunger. Read his artist statement here.

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