Field Recordings

" In undergraduate school both Martin Espada and Sam Cornish loomed large in my academic and creative life. Both men pressed upon me the importance of advocacy, and social justice. Now I don't consider myself to be a political poet per se, but my subject matter is certainly politicized. I am a writer of the poor rural south for example, and often write about marginalized people such as addicts, alcoholics, and even the gay, lesbian, transgender communities in the rural south." You can read it here.

The above image is the leading poem up on AvantAppal(achia) which features two of my poems. "Custis Field" & "White Rubber Boots" are set on ESVA, but are not "real" or "biographical" in the traditional sense. Personal note: the way this zine sets in margins is not conducive to line breaks. Something I have grown sensitive to as I gain experience working with The Broadkill Review these last seven years. Dozens of journals and zines have restrictions such as these. It's part of my personal mission as the managing editor of The Broadkill Review to preserve line breaks and form as it was intended.

Short weird fiction. I get a lil' Cthulhu here  " But then his legs cracked forward, his kneecaps breaking and crushing, bulging out. A sickening sound of bone and skin rearranging. That was when the doc fell back from the younger boy. And could you blame him? His one hand still on the black and grey thing, the other on the ground catching his fall."

Every other word is truth. To cipher the weal take a pen and scratch out eyes. To shade, to cross. My ghastly toe-headed conspirator, the pale is the knife wiped clean.  The vowels we speak are valves for your sweet breath... It's a good lil poem inspired by spywork, romance, and always self reflection. Now if that isn't  a non-answer, I don't know what is. Original journal post here.

"Incantation" was written in 2010, and then was elongated and then abbreviated before it firmed up in its current form. It was originally entitled "Is Mine."

Op Ed. Ramble. Steve Bannon is often described as a Neo-Nazi, or just a Nazi. He really isn’t. That’s way too simple.  He knows his Nazi imagery and iconography, evident from the “America First” inauguration speech, the lingo of the campaign, plus the regime’s early policy. Bannon claims to be a Nationalist, one with an originalist view of the Constitution, much like Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s pick for SCOTUS.  So what do you get when you thread a Fascism fetish, Old-School Constitutional thinking, and capitalism?   American feudalism. A loose federal government, controlled by a strong military, the oligarchy ruling class lording over the spoils of the states which would possibly be recombined, even, into loose nations, pooling resources, and trade leverage. Dystopia schmopia.  And how would that even happen?   We’ll have to go through Russia to get there. If you’re just catching onto Steve Bannon, and Stephen Miller for that matter, two power...

Back in the northern colony they had begun to preparing everyone for starvation. For death. And now were there any left? The Dun-in-man man lived. The Dun-in-man could stumble upon her. She almost wished he would. Two against a pack meant blood, flesh, skin, and bones to nurse for the winter. Would he take her too? She did not know. The colony; the constable swinging his weight around the gated property to keep everyone on their toes. As food supplies grew short so does patience. Paranoia begins. She is the first to leave. "The colony,” she whispered. She placed the pot on the stove, pulling her blankets close. Fever sweat rolled off her forehead. "I, Tiresias," featured in Common Oddities Speculative Fiction Sideshow  , was composed during the period  where I researched the prophet Tiresias, and explored his and her transformations. The story began as a what if scenario: what if one of the last people on the planet were a FTM character? How would she be treated?  Wo...