YZ Chin – Experienced C3PO Seeks Unique Challenges
Experienced C3PO Seeks Unique Challenges My business card read “C3PO.” The title stood, depending on who you asked, most often for Chief Peace/Poetry/People Officer. The office was in Silicon Alley, otherwise known as New Hack City. (As an ex-poet, I have my private concerns about these coinages, but that is beside the point.) At my […]
Nicholas A. White – The Powerlifter
The Powerlifter Obesity, poor diet, lack of cardiovascular exercise, high blood pressure. Billy had all of them. He dreamed of breaking powerlifting records, not longevity. On his first day at the office, he carried, in one trip, his entire collection of engineering books, reference materials, and personal items—four moving boxes stacked taller than his head. […]
Phillip Sterling – Clothes, and Other Forms of Occupation
Clothes, and Other Forms of Occupation When he realized the ink stain on his red tie was permanent, he packed into an empty Kleenex box four months’ worth of paperclips, two Post-It pads, the photo of his ex-wife with the dog she called Laundry (a dog that never really took to him in the eighteen […]
Arjun Razdan – Once It Is Done
Once It Is Done Reader: Writer, write me a fabulous story. Pack it with all the surprise you can imagine, make characters nobler than those of yesteryears, make the men forthright and famous and let the women be as beautiful and intriguing as Cleopatra. Let each word explode a new universe. Let each chapter be […]
Cassandra Passarelli – Night Shift at the Palace
Night Shift at the Palace Eight o’clock. ‘‘Bienvenidos! Welcome. Bienvenue. Nice room with view of the Baie de Tanger?’’ ‘‘You want coffee? Come.’’ ‘‘Hashish? Ground zero.’’ We have no work but we walk briskly nowhere. Grizzled patriarchs in marchas. Bearded fathers in white jelabayas. Fat uncles selling sesame cakes. Boys throwing water on beggars. Waiters […]
