Unlikely 2.0


   As we celebrate mediocrity all the boys upstairs want to see how much you'll pay for what you used to get for free. —Tom Petty


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Recent Articles:

Paste: A Short Film by Cecelia Chapman and Jeff Crouch
Nine Paintings by Mario Robert
Winterstate: Five Paintings by David Nakabayashi
When You Come Again, You will Never Go: A Poetry Chapbook by Andreas Morgner
State of the Union: A Sardine on Vacation, Episode Fifty-Six
The Ekonomics of Fantasyland by Jim Chaffee
Garda Ghista on the exploitation of the European worker
Yacov Ben Efrat on the Gaza blockade
Golden Opportunity: Short Fiction by Eric Sentell
Fine Dead: Short Fiction by Ryan Meany
Empty Orchestra: Short Fiction by Ben Nardolilli
The One: Short Fiction by Natasha Grinberg
Emily Spence on Peak Oil and social collapse
Nicholas C. Arguimbau explains what the deal with Peak Oil is, exactly
Assaf Adiv on Israel's entry into the OECD
David Boyajian on Turkey, Armenia, and the Woodrow Wilson Center
Joel Lewis on discovering Dan Burros, American-Jewish Nazi
Gabriel Ricard reviews Ghost & Ganga: A Jazz Odyssey and interviews the author, Kirpal Gordon
Two Poems by Changming Yuan
Three Poems by Linda Ravenswood
Three Poems by Dennis Mahagin
Three Poems by Reuben Nash Dendinger
Three Poems by Robin Scofield
Three Poems by Holly Day
Three Poems by Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal
Three Poems by Alan Britt
Three Poems by M.P. Powers
Three Poems by Steve Dalachinsky


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Let's Make It New


Poetry

At 161 West 49th Avenue and Postmodern Civilization
by Changming Yuan, May 2010
"Eat MacDonald's or Kentucky Chicken
Drink Coca Cola or Pepsi
Listen to Jazz or Rock'n'Roll
Smoke Kent or Marlboro"

anti-macchiato, The Messenger, and Floatsam
by M.P. Powers, May 2010
    "mostpoems are diary entries
dressed in poetry's clothing
mostpoems are ironic
vignettes of deadspeak"

For Bob Dylan, A Sense of Humor, Lepers and Angels
by Alan Britt, May 2010
"Now, here comes that guitar, Bloomfield
twanging like a heart valve opening, closing, opening, saying
worship it your way, but worship it
like everyone's god-forsaken lives depend upon it,"

The Christian, Forgive My Forehead, and Skull Full O' Termites
by Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal, May 2010
"I forgive my forehead.
Sitting here I rub it.
I forgive my right hand.
I scratch my head all day."

The Poets, Around the Corner, and Size 8
by Holly Day, May 2010
"Pythagoras did his best work
in the dark, setting up his experiments
in the equivalent to
an isolation tank, eyes wide open"

Three Crones at the Crossroads, "Single file," and Cantalily's Prayer
by Robin Scofield, May 2010
"Pray for us, Coyote,
Now and in the hour of our roadslide"

Greywash Heat Sweep, Disverb, and Flaming Curtains Conceal
by Reuben Nash Dendinger, May 2010
"I've seen teenage girls sacrificed at the altars of underground punk cults where dagger-wielding vocalists scream society's funeral dirge
skinned alive and transformed by the naked violence of that poetry
cut up into pieces and mixed with the ashes of William S. Burroughs
boiled to shit and splashed on a Parisian drug dealer's doorstep"

jim carroll is nearing one hundred and ten thousand facebook friends, ashbery's status update, and ginsberg's profile pics
by Dennis Mahagin, May 2010
"choked up in a blast
of motes, i wish to take
down these diary notes"

The quality of carelessness that made them hate us so, Jane's Heir, and Concentration camp
by Linda Ravenswood, May 2010
"to whom do you make your appeal
at night, in the car, alone, at your 40th
birthday party, the one that never was;
do you think you will turn to your
children ? They never even liked you."

frith froth, evidence, and and whirly-giggy as the colors dance
by Steve Dalachinsky, May 2010
"they play laments
spacious   liturgical almost — distended church bell
                    difficult sonorities — a whole new view
                        knocking on the doors of..."

selections from When You Come Again, You Will Never Go
poems by Andreas Morgner, with a video by Belinda Subraman, April 2010
"Children play. Each move tentative. The desire for fun struggling with a wary glance
Over the shoulder. A mother hovers close in case feet need wings. The guns love
Children the most. Each a potential recruit for others' wars."

decade
by Si Philbrook, April 2010
"our children will hate us. they must. not for simple lack of trust, or wanks disturbed, but for all the lies we hide behind, keep score would ya and choose the ones to make the cut; the tooth fairy, santa claus, and jesus; muhammed, yahweh, krishna all the lot; even here our own-sown lies deceive us, we just can't see that we are all we've got in this sad, cold life"

Cleaning Lady and Warsaw 2
by Melanie Sevcenko, April 2010
"I see how our bodies glide in opposition to
each other's size and structure
and how my bathing suit is low cut, unsexy
but brown and form-fitting to my tight bulbous body"

"The haystack of blood, fly swarms," "just give me your throat," and "i see roads to train tracks littered"
by Olivia Kennett, April 2010
"just give me your weathered hands
I will soak them in lanolin and hang them out to dry
Just give me the strands of your hair
I will weave them into a home"

Bipolar, A Chain of Days, and Chess
by Michael H. Brownstein, April 2010
"They tell me how jail cells cleanse the soul,
How hard nipples of silicon implanted breasts have a quality of egg yolk,
The sky a burden of sweat and peroxide,
How window casements shake with a current in rain."

Truth Versus Fiction, Bladderwrack, and Carol to the Universe
by Magdalena Ball, April 2010
"I reach for you over thought waves
little girl's hand
hung in the air
your absence, finally, matches reality
to imagination"

Two Buds, Alcatraz, and Waiting Room
by A.D. Hitchin, April 2010
"Living in
allegories. Mad for visions to be presented. Where dross burns,
burns. Prisons and asylums of mad
ones, each beautiful, fragile"

My Heart Shivered, Because I Was Never, and The Dating Service Deliciously Lustful Dream
by Lyn Lifshin, April 2010
"So much blood the
doctors said but no sign
of trouble. She would
be ok for now. I was
slamming back to him,"

a slow drift, train, and remarking on the sweat
by Steve Dalachinsky, April 2010
"sonically—the floor begins to tremble
                                   & break into a sweat
        as i do
                       there's no reason for reason or reasoning"

Three Poems from twenty-three poems derived from random word selections
by Michael Aro, April 2010
"posing in police uniforms
(a national impulse to be sure)
the courage to believe
that ideas lead to ideals"

The Parts Make a Whole. and Eating Words.
by Heather Brager, March 2010
"she was the scene
through a window
with the darkness
in his breath"

Little Chore Boy Black and In Space and Time
by Linda Rosenkrans, March 2010
"strawberry slugs
wrap around
los diablo's
down town"

Working the Wilderness Trail and Intrusion
by John Grey, March 2010
"Maple, you shouldn't have died here.
White pine, don't you know these
yellow markings mean human."

'... star stuff burning still in these ashes ...' and Immediate Enraptures
by Constance Stadler, March 2010
"prisms of snowflake
allusions
melt this frigid
alone."

Jacques Said and Blindfolds & Manacles
by Michael Brandonisio, March 2010
"Love who I am
    one not like you
            ever will
                   love"

art is a sublimated insurgency, writer's heartburn, and circle
by Omar Azam, March 2010
"If you find someone
to frame that turd
you made on the pillowcase
consider yourself lucky"

some such book, write through it, and idiot bar mitzvah
by Justin Hyde, March 2010
"you're the most
unhappy man
i've ever met,
said the brunette"

Too Early for This, I Stash Your Image, and Afterward
by Lyn Lifshin, March 2010
"Hardly a crow,
only a last blaze
of sun as if to
apologize for
all that's gone"

i in the you form, am in the are, you're in the our, or a mega maniac, "everyone is ghost," and the god of your shrug - or - i want to be annihilated by your mask
by Jason Neese, March 2010
"matrix mouth had the obscene density of televangelist tears. both quickly put out a retraction and became saved in waves under a small body of water that is later recanted and done again, then, cosigned by sin and your child-self which is actually trapped inside your adult-self wondering how the fuck it can get out
in a way that doesn't compromise your adult-self's position."

The Freedom Charter Blues
by Aryan Kaganof, February 2010
"There will be clichés for all, and sterotypes and hot air, especially the hot air shall be divided amongst all those who blow on it."

Two Translations of Pablo Neruda: Love and Sorrow and At Night
by Sigerson, February 2010
"So now tether me to your pure tempo,
that tenacity which in your breast beats
as if with the wings of a submerged swan,"

Total Elimination Cage Combat and Noah's Newer Vessel For Dilapidated Beatniks
by Ed Coletti, January 2010
"Poets from a past and darkly happy
Beatnik nation swarming
Up along the gangway
To some Buddhist cruise ship."

Jesus or a White Chick and School Daze
by Cassandra Dallett, January 2010
"maybe it makes the sex better
that he put himself through
such torment"

Two Translations of Charles Baudelaire: I Shall Haunt You as No Other and Song of Autumn
by Sigerson, January 2010
"and I shall give you, dusky one,
kisses cold as the silvery moon,
silk caresses of the serpent
which has crawled from some hellish pit;"

Caudata, Haplochromini, and Stylommatophora
by Sam Schild, January 2010
"sucking, yolkin eggs invertebrates after breaking, fins swim from backs tell along lengthening tails distance traveled since from beginning nose she's absorbing pheromones, taking spermatophores, amplexused, encapsulated swimmings sinuous swashlings, penisless production yielding long flaccid yet limbers with fins does this make me less baby?"

I Do Not Know, Sitting on the Dock of the Bay, and In My View
by Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal, January 2010
"will claw at my
skin, find the vein,
and rip it out.
That much I know."

mustard seeds, Typos in braille, and "Progressivism"
by Robert Louis Henry, January 2010
"knowing good
and well that
faith is a flea
on your foreskin"

Mountain Child, Hell's Circles, and Thumbing a Ride
by Justin Carmickle, January 2010
"Imagine a boy wrapped in ratty
bearskins, with unkempt hair laden
with lice and fleas — know
that he comes from mountain people, those
who live so deep in the hills they barely speak"

The Emissions of Insects, Can't we all Just, and Ring of Fire
by Joshua Conklin, January 2010
"So I wasn't surprised to see Conflict on the street yesterday,
a paper bag
and five-week shadow."

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