Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
︎︎︎ Zachary Swezy
︎ Mar 31, 2025
Morning empty
like a head. Lewd,
disgusting, you step
on an egg.
Any party
starts when
you get there,
giving body to the ritual.
Noisy, noisy. Gassy, classy.
Very dirty, a living show.
See the ferns in the bath?
Los Angeles can be a
jungle or a heavy
scene. People can die
of thirst in Beverly Hills.
Red hollow
bodies, red drums,
recorded. Miraculous
rock. What’s not
to dig?
A man says, “Up yours,
Ratso.” Forgive him.
Gas, a guilt, a jilt.
Love on the beach. Someone
says, “Why don’t you fuck Freud?
if you love shame so much.”
Then we learn The Blondes
run Hollywood. They never lose.
A lens sharpens,
clarifies and bursts!
Look on up.
Sunrise is a direction.
It can weigh on you.
You can find it gleaming,
tragedy can strike
in the form of an
errant sandbag,
an edge,
or a
pregnant pause.
Goodness can blind
us to the ugly
and the pain.
The blade can go
snicker snack.
The God of
time can eclipse
the game and
swordplay can be
punctuated.
like a head. Lewd,
disgusting, you step
on an egg.
Any party
starts when
you get there,
giving body to the ritual.
Noisy, noisy. Gassy, classy.
Very dirty, a living show.
See the ferns in the bath?
Los Angeles can be a
jungle or a heavy
scene. People can die
of thirst in Beverly Hills.
Red hollow
bodies, red drums,
recorded. Miraculous
rock. What’s not
to dig?
A man says, “Up yours,
Ratso.” Forgive him.
Gas, a guilt, a jilt.
Love on the beach. Someone
says, “Why don’t you fuck Freud?
if you love shame so much.”
Then we learn The Blondes
run Hollywood. They never lose.
A lens sharpens,
clarifies and bursts!
Look on up.
Sunrise is a direction.
It can weigh on you.
You can find it gleaming,
tragedy can strike
in the form of an
errant sandbag,
an edge,
or a
pregnant pause.
Goodness can blind
us to the ugly
and the pain.
The blade can go
snicker snack.
The God of
time can eclipse
the game and
swordplay can be
punctuated.
Zachary Swezy is uncomfortable flexing his linktree.
GOLDRUSH
︎︎︎ Lillian Mottern
︎ Mar 29, 2025
At this time, there are only drunk emails written in scrawl. There is something wrong with this picture said the angel. She was holding a printed out webpage from an article on how to polish crystals in a blender. In reflection perhaps I am too pristine for cannibalism. Yes as a psychic told me last May I am destined for California.
Lillian Mottern is from Los Angeles. Her work has been published in Wigleaf, The Big One, and Discount Guillotine, among others. She lives in New York City.
Also by Lillian: The Clownish Elite
waiter
︎︎︎ Josh Lovins
︎ Mar 25, 2025
so much of adulthood just about wrapping up your jaws in your hands like a werewolf and thrashing in a rental
a honing of the reflex to retract the treat from the grabbing sort
saying yuck and ugh almost as seldom as you can
a honing of the reflex to retract the treat from the grabbing sort
saying yuck and ugh almost as seldom as you can
BED ROT
︎︎︎ Ethan DeLorenzo
︎ Mar 23, 2025
i’ve got a headache and a long list.
i’ve got a kid who doesn’t want to get out of bed, surrounded by a neighborhood that can’t get out of bed. somewhere distant there’s traffic. roads and roads filled with impractical humming. jokes on them. we’ve got headaches. we’re calling out sick. we’re watching lil rascals. our bladders will be bursting at the seams, because bed is too good to leave.
i’ve got a kid who doesn’t want to get out of bed, surrounded by a neighborhood that can’t get out of bed. somewhere distant there’s traffic. roads and roads filled with impractical humming. jokes on them. we’ve got headaches. we’re calling out sick. we’re watching lil rascals. our bladders will be bursting at the seams, because bed is too good to leave.
Ethan DeLorenzo found proof in the pudding at a young age.
Seeing quietly your hands
︎︎︎ Toby Shorin
︎ Mar 21, 2025
Seeing quietly your hands
Gestures
Gentle wrists in their movements
And in your joints
Rotating under your skin when you
Held them so carefully
You gazed down hunting for
Some recommendation
Traveling down the dendrite to a
Missing signal at the tree root
And I became overwhelmed
By the reality of another
A sticky glistening of motivation
Wrapped in a flower dusted skin
Once I dared to peek at your breasts
Pale as they hinted at an intimacy
I dare not fully yearn for
Although I’ve dared
To keep my eyes shut
And hold to the last vestige
Of a guilty dream
In which you shared with me one acknowledgment
Of sap passed between us
For trees the aching flow of new life
Year to year
Must seem like minutes
But I must leave these wanderings
For my dreaming mind to see
A tiresome zwischenzug
It begins to dawn over the meadow
The fullness of your being
A light that shows a new level of knowing
However circumspect i feel it
For mountains the light that
Melts a glacial drop over eons
Must seem like minutes
As they do for me
When I watch your thumbs
When your eyes speak clarity a movement longer
Ride, I said, you said, ride, ride, ride
Gestures
Gentle wrists in their movements
And in your joints
Rotating under your skin when you
Held them so carefully
You gazed down hunting for
Some recommendation
Traveling down the dendrite to a
Missing signal at the tree root
And I became overwhelmed
By the reality of another
A sticky glistening of motivation
Wrapped in a flower dusted skin
Once I dared to peek at your breasts
Pale as they hinted at an intimacy
I dare not fully yearn for
Although I’ve dared
To keep my eyes shut
And hold to the last vestige
Of a guilty dream
In which you shared with me one acknowledgment
Of sap passed between us
For trees the aching flow of new life
Year to year
Must seem like minutes
But I must leave these wanderings
For my dreaming mind to see
A tiresome zwischenzug
It begins to dawn over the meadow
The fullness of your being
A light that shows a new level of knowing
However circumspect i feel it
For mountains the light that
Melts a glacial drop over eons
Must seem like minutes
As they do for me
When I watch your thumbs
When your eyes speak clarity a movement longer
Ride, I said, you said, ride, ride, ride
Toby Shorin is a writer and the cofounder of research organization Other Internet. He believes that epic poetry is still possible today.