2012: Dogzplot | PANK | Mad Hatters Review | Reprint Poetry | A-Minor | decomP magazine | TrainWrite | Fatboy Review || 2011 | 2009—2010
Little red riding hood is strong symbolic stuff. I’m using her in “Sniper”, published at Dogzplot, a piece originally written for this photo by Catherine Davis. Excerpt: [#102] «I sat on top of a Sycamore tree, comfy, and looked around, aimed here and there without any real passion for aiming until a girl appeared. She looked like Little Red Riding Hood without the hood.»
It’s not often that my own writing gives me the chills: “The Sodomized Dictator” still does. I wrote it after the killing of Muammar Gaddafi in the 2011 uprising in Libya. Now published in PANK magazine with an audio recording. Excerpt: [#101] «In the night after the killing, Ali washes himself in a bowl. His wife comes close and takes his hands, slowly stroking them with hers.»
There is a virtual funeral service for my dear friend Carol Novack (1948–2011) at MHR blog, organized by Marc Vincenz. My flash “For Carol Novack” is up there together with a string of other tributes that are testimony to Carol’s singularity. Please pay your respects to this wonderful writer. Excerpt: [#100]
«In the cities, the people don’t age, they become stones instead. They don’t turn into any old stones, but into stones that sit on top of other stones transcending everything that man is capable of building.»
Photo: Carol Novack 1974, by T. Bennett (via John Jenkins’ tribute).
It’s night in Paris & people have unwholesome encounters — the poetic resurrectionists of Reprint Poetry liked and published “A Classy Whore” (and they also came up with the new title). This is the right story for a classy mag with shades of Victorian times or late afternoons on the cemetery of Pere Lachaise looking at the graves of dead poets. Enjoy. Excerpt: [#99]
«A classy whore who heaved herself onto the street despite a cold that made her feel shaky, suddenly saw that she didn’t care about being classy after all anymore.»
“Eternitude”, published at the fabulous, stylish A-Minor magazine (ed. Nicolette Wong) is my daughter’s favorite tale of all my tales. It comes with a drawing that I made for the story. Excerpt: [#98]
«We travel through spring, slaying mythical beasts. We keep a dwarf, who chews a precious stone for us.»
“From Russia With Love” at decomP magazine is based on a true story related to me by one of my mysterious Russian friends. This piece comes with a carefully accentuated audio recording. Excerpt: [#97]
«Two heads and founders of two companies jumped out of windows to their deaths in the presence of their families. The autopsy showed that they both had a synthetic amphetamine in their blood which is known to induce instant suicidal feelings.»
TrainWrite published “Lefthand View”, my small glimpse at another world that you only see shortly because you ride by on a fast train…—excerpt: [#96]
«The city grew around the small brick house like an oyster around a dark pearl of uncertain nature. Inside the house, the two old people moved little as if saving themselves for a long journey.»
Berlin: Capital of Assassins.
My short story “Berlin Pastoral”, first performed publicly at This Berlin Life in Berlin and later at the 4’33″ event in London, was published in 12 installments as part of the annual “12 Days” issue in Fatboy Review. It begins like this: [#93]
«Susi, Uschi and Tom live on a balcony above busy Helmholtzplatz in Berlin. They’re not strictly speaking homeless: the balcony has got a roof. They live there throughout the year, in winter and in summer. You know people like this exist. You’ve probably waved at them from the street. It’s tight up there, but they never complain.»
Read on for my publications in 2011 and 2009–2010.
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