“Cheer up, brother. You’re making everyone sick with all that worrying.” “I can’t help it, Spidey. All my abusers are dead. My mother is dead...” Rook explained. “I thought you hated that bitch.” “I didn’t hate her. I just wanted her dead.” “But that doesn’t explain why you’re so anxious. It’s making my skin crawl.”... Continue Reading →
A Seven Act Stage Play by M. Christopher Horton ----- ## CHARACTERS **MANNY** — An undercover operative posing as a junkie. Plays acoustic guitar. Speaks only to the audience. **SPIDER** — A woman living on the edge. Addict, hustler, survivor. Speaks only to Manny. He never answers. **BAMBI** — A woman who found God after... Continue Reading →
Whoever it was that said every man had to go through hell to reach his paradise better have been right. Once again I found myself in the asshole of the world. A place with more crazies and burnouts, more psychotics and misfits, more idiots and addicts per square inch than any place I’d ever known,... Continue Reading →
The following document is a field report submitted in March of 1995 concerning an incident involving several members of an illegal organization known as “crusties” and an undercover officer whose name has been withheld. Portions of this report reference illegal activity, controlled substances, and violence. These references are included solely for the purpose of documentation.... Continue Reading →
Poor people commit crimes because they’re broke. Rich people commit crimes because they’re broken. The rest of us commit crimes because we’re bored. “Brother Rook!” Spider yelled to her old friend. Melvin was across the street from her favorite corner to work. “You always out here selling your books,” she said. “You need to open... Continue Reading →
A collective of dolphins is called a pod. A group of ravens is known as a congress. A parliament of owls. A sangha of Buddhists. A murder of crows. But did you know a collection of beggars is called a taxation? A taxation of beggars. It’s from Shakespeare. And a gang of crack smokers is... Continue Reading →
On the east side of Manhattan, near 52nd Street, there was an old art high school where the teachers were working artists, and the students were an eccentric and eclectic group of creatively crazy kids from every borough of the city. We called it A&D, and we played D&D. “Tomorrow I want to wake up... Continue Reading →
The raising of a middle finger as an insult dates back to before the time of Jesus. In Ancient Greece, the aristocracy used the raised middle finger gesture to denote silent disapproval in the halls of government. For thousands of years, the gesture has meant many insulting things, but in the hands of Shine Greenbaum,... Continue Reading →
Sad, broken, and jostling without a seatbelt, Melvin Hawthorne left Chicago, Illinois, for Woodstock, New York, in the wee hours of the early morning. “I don’t know what to tell you,” Miss Haddigood whispered to the ten-year-old Melvin Hawthorne in the low light of the art supply closet. It was late on a Thursday evening,... Continue Reading →
Marty’s expression never changed as he reached into his school-uniform suit-jacket, pulled out a miniature flathead screwdriver with black tape across the handle, and held it close to his body like a prison shiv with which to shank poor Melvin in the yard. Melvin barely reacted as the bull charged forward, slashing wildly with a... Continue Reading →
Melvin Hawthorne pulled his old teddy bear close and gave him one last hug. He had received the dreaded call. His so-called stepfather, Ankh, was shouting from below: “Get down here. Now.” And his step-monster was not a patient man. Theodore Melvin Beam, Esq., was a tan, classic bear — Teddy to his friends. He... Continue Reading →
Eleanor folded at the waist to whisper to whisper in her grand-nephew's ear on his sixth birthday. The church was packed with people, and the altar band was loud and joyous as petitioners danced in the aisles. She handed her grand-nephew a crisply creased one-hundred-dollar bill and said, “Drop it in the urn at the... Continue Reading →
Grandma Lily was sweet, kind, and brilliant and still alive by the year Melvin Hawthorne was born; 1967 in the summer of love. As the opening credits of his life became instantly violent and the first person he would ever know forcibly evicted him, for the first time, she refused to comfort him when he... Continue Reading →
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