Unlikely 2.0


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Editors' Notes

Maria Damon and Michelle Greenblatt
Jim Leftwich and Michelle Greenblatt
Sheila E. Murphy and Michelle Greenblatt

A Visual Conversation on Michelle Greenblatt's ASHES AND SEEDS with Stephen Harrison, Monika Mori | MOO, Jonathan Penton and Michelle Greenblatt

Letters for Michelle: with work by Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Jeffrey Side, Larry Goodell, mark hartenbach, Charles J. Butler, Alexandria Bryan and Brian Kovich

Visual Poetry by Reed Altemus
Poetry by Glen Armstrong
Poetry by Lana Bella
A Eulogic Poem by John M. Bennett
Elegic Poetry by John M. Bennett
Poetry by Wendy Taylor Carlisle
A Eulogy by Vincent A. Cellucci
Poetry by Vincent A. Cellucci
Poetry by Joel Chace
A Spoken Word Poem and Visual Art by K.R. Copeland
A Eulogy by Alan Fyfe
Poetry by Win Harms
Poetry by Carolyn Hembree
Poetry by Cindy Hochman
A Eulogy by Steffen Horstmann
A Eulogic Poem by Dylan Krieger
An Elegic Poem by Dylan Krieger
Visual Art by Donna Kuhn
Poetry by Louise Landes Levi
Poetry by Jim Lineberger
Poetry by Dennis Mahagin
Poetry by Peter Marra
A Eulogy by Frankie Metro
A Song by Alexis Moon and Jonathan Penton
Poetry by Jay Passer
A Eulogy by Jonathan Penton
Visual Poetry by Anne Elezabeth Pluto and Bryson Dean-Gauthier
Visual Art by Marthe Reed
A Eulogy by Gabriel Ricard
Poetry by Alison Ross
A Short Movie by Bernd Sauermann
Poetry by Christopher Shipman
A Spoken Word Poem by Larissa Shmailo
A Eulogic Poem by Jay Sizemore
Elegic Poetry by Jay Sizemore
Poetry by Felino A. Soriano
Visual Art by Jamie Stoneman
Poetry by Ray Succre
Poetry by Yuriy Tarnawsky
A Song by Marc Vincenz


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sLAsH
by Bill Berry
Part 23

SUICIDE

Previous

Six screamed. Skin watched the ooze of red form around the right hand of his friend. The blade popped out of his belly and without thinking Skin grabbed his friend's arm and knocked the instrument to the floor.

"You fucking asshole!" Skin shouted, "You're such a cock-sucker! I can't believe you! You dick!" Six fell back into his friend's arms. The weight of Six's body fell in on itself. Skin drug him, bleeding and breathing heavily, to floor.

The PCP made everything difficult to comprehend. For a moment, Skin thought he could will his friend back together by simply remembering Six as he was before the knife went inside him. After what seemed to be too long of a time, Skin realized it wasn't working. "I don't know what to do," Skin said out loud.

"Call Rusty," Six suggested. "Rusty will know."

"Yeah. Yeah," Skin said, "That's a great idea. Wait here." Skin set his friend's head, which had been resting in his lap, on the floor and went into the adjoining bedroom to the telephone. He picked up the receiver and punched in the number. After three rings, Rusty answered and Skin marveled to hear his friend's voice.

"Wow," Skin said, "I can't believe it's you."

"What do you mean?" Rusty asked. Skin, surprised that Rusty didn't get it and suddenly incredibly disappointed sat silent. "Hello?" Rusty insisted.

"I can't believe you," Skin said, "I can't believe you don't get it."

"Get what?" Rusty asked.

"See," Skin replied. "That's what I'm talking about."

"What are you talking about?" Rusty retorted.

"Six stabbed himself with a switchblade," Skin said annoyed.

"What?" Rusty went sharp with attention, "What are you talking about?"

"Six. I'm talking about Six. He stabbed himself with a knife and we don't know what to do." Skin was getting angry.

"I'll be right there," Rusty said and hung up.

Skin sat holding the phone. Rusty was gone. He was incensed. "I can't believe you did this, you fuck!" He shouted out as he slammed the phone down. Skin walked back to his friend in the bathroom. Six had pulled a towel off the rack and wadded it into his side. It was soaking up most of the bleeding.

"I think it's stopping," Six said.

"You're a fucker!" Skin said, "and I don't care if it does stop. I can't believe you ruined our PCP trip like this!"

"Sorry," Six said. The throbbing in his side subsided and the ooze of his innards had Six entranced. His insides were leaking out of him, and it was incomprehensible to Six that he was liquidy under all this flesh. "I'm nothing but water," he said. "I'm nothing but flesh and water. See," he held up the towel to show Skin.

"Fuck you," Skin said as he sat down on the toilet. "Rusty is on his way over."

"What for?" Six asked, staring at his blood-soaked clothing.

"To help. You might die," Skin said.

"Oh," Six said, "Okay," and he pushed the towel back into his stomach. "I think it's stopping," he said.

"I don't care," Skin insisted. "I hope you bleed to death."

"Almost," Six said puzzling at himself, "Almost…"

"Man, what the fuck are we gonna do?"

"Wait for Rusty," Six said. "Look," Six said and lifted the towel.

"What?" Skin asked, "I don't see anything."

"Exactly," Six said. He pushed himself up from the floor and stood in front of Skin. His overly white, undernourished body jolted awkwardly left and right. "Do you think Rusty will notice?" Six looked at his stomach in the mirror.

"Notice what?" Skin asked.

"You know, Skin," six replied, "sex on PCP is supposed to be really hot."

"But you're bleeding…" Skin looked at the floor of the bathroom. There was no towel and no blood. "I don't get it," Skin said. "Why did I call Rusty? What's going on here?" Skin got angry and pushed the back of Six, who was busy studying himself in the mirror again.

"Hey, watch it! Nothing's going on. I told you."

"You're crazy," Skin said. He was sitting on the toilet looking for the blood soaked towel that had been pushed at the side of Six's knife wound. "Where's Rusty?"

"I dunno. So you wanna fuck?"

"Sure." Skin dropped to his knees and took Six's cock in his mouth.

"See—I'm going to make my penis larger for you tonight. I'm going to make it a full 12 inches for you. Would you like that?" Six asked. Skin mumbled. " I know," Six said, "It's hard to talk with cock in your mouth." He looked down at the top of Skin's head. His engorged cock filled Skin's mouth. Their shared hallucination was spinning around them. It wasn't long before Six came, filling Skin's stomach with his seed.


"I realized something," Rusty said to Six a few days later.

"What's that?" Six asked. They were walking down 8 Mile toward the bar where Peggy worked. Rusty took out a cigarette and lit it up as they walked. He passed it to his friend, who hit it hard and held the smoke for a moment. Six nodded and Rusty smiled.

"You know, when I was in seventh grade," Rusty began, "I would come home from school everyday and masturbate."

Six laughed. He knew where this was heading, "Want me to rape you next time we fuck?"

"Would you?" Rusty asked.

"Sure. I won't even tell you it's coming, and that will make it more real."

"Thanks," Rusty said. He felt his hard on stiff in his pants. He looked at Six and wanted him to notice. Six did, and smiled.

Continued...