Month: June 2016

“NOTICE: NO PARKING 8:00-4:00 TREE WORK” by Richard Cecil

June 27, 2016 ALonelyRiotCrew 0

The City’s come to saw down the pear tree they planted out front thirty years ago, when I moved here, replacing the maple tree that crashed down in a storm—a near-tornado. At three a.m. a beeping truck arrived with men in slickers wielding growling chain saws. Lightning still lit up the eastern sky as they chopped the maple’s trunk and hauled the logs away. I asked if they could bring a pear to re-plant in the maple’s place— paid extra for it. Pear blossoms every spring! Just fifty bucks for a lifetime of bouquets— unfortunately, a tree’s lifetime, not mine. [Read more]

“The Architect” by Rachel Bryant

June 24, 2016 ALonelyRiotCrew 0

Oh, weaver bird! You do not knit or sew, But weave straw into houses. You hang your golden pear apartments On tree cities, in tree villages High-rise lofts Resting on yards of air In a neighborhood where Front doors are always open And homes sway With warm winter sands Oh, avian architect! You test the tensile Strength of Earth’s hair You unwind her, repurpose her Resurrect her dead, Collect her gilded kindling And set it ablaze In the dawn of each new day Glittering baubles Of elevated oases Decorate an arid Arabia     Rachel Bryant grew up in Florida, [Read more]

“The Third State of Matter” by Eric Twardzik

June 20, 2016 ALonelyRiotCrew 0

Imagine that you are not a part of this time and place, but another. You were born on the Caribbean island of Martinique, sometime after 1885 but before 1897. You grow up in a poor family, in a poor country. Your father might be a fisherman, or he might work on a sugar plantation, or he might do nothing at all. Though you sometimes have nothing to eat and your brothers and sisters have no shoes to wear, you find simple joys. You wade through streams and try to catch river gobies and mountain mullets with your bare hands. You [Read more]

“Simple Medicine” by Aaron Maltz

June 13, 2016 ALonelyRiotCrew 0

No one seems to believe me but I know there’s cancer in my foot. I’ve been to five doctors now and they all seem to think I’m batshit crazy. They don’t say that outright but I can see it. They’ve drawn blood and taken x-rays and talked to me at length about their conclusions but I can see the hate they hold for me. It’s in their eyes. There’s a deadening in there that looks past me and I know they aren’t giving me the kind of treatment I deserve. They’re thinking about their fancy car or their sexy secretary, who also holds me in contempt every time I call on the phone. I can hear a distance in her voice.

“The Aide” by Erika Price

June 6, 2016 ALonelyRiotCrew 0

“Yeah,” Radhiyaa said into the phone, “Yeah. The water, it’s too high. It’s. No. There’s no way. Yeah.”
Diana’s father Brian was yelling meaningless, overly practical advice at her but refusing to actually leave work early and pick the girls up. And Radhiyaa knew, after five years of acquaintance with the man, that there was no reasoning or reassuring him, no way to get him to shut up – she just had to let him speak his peace and then get off the line as soon as possible. So she let him go on like that and looked ahead, where the murky river water slapped against the hood of the vehicle.