ABOUT

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

ARCHIVE

LAGNIAPPE

MAST

SUBMISSIONS

Poem
by Michael Schiavo


For Samuel Amadon

I was sitting in the car waiting for you, in the rain,
Smoking, in the car in the rain, waiting, but it was you
In the car, smoking in the rain and waiting, not for me,
No, not for someone in particular, not anyone—
                                                               No,
It was someone else in the car waiting and smoking
In the rain, like you, smoking in the car, in the rain,
November gouging my fingers like it gets into yours,
But not the same way you drive your car in the rain,
Smoking, the rain on the corpses, the dead piled so high
Sam, you could smell the shit still in their bowels,
In the rain, smoking.
                                 These are the songs
You’ve accustomed me to, these faux-diabolics,
The ballads of ne’er-do-wells who always do better.
One day, these songs will gain us admission.