Yellow Mama E zine

[and all of the good times and sometimes the bad]

 

by John Sweet

 

 

and every street in this town

leads to

a street that goes nowhere, and the

bridges have all collapsed

 

are you writing this down?

 

do i need to draw you a map?

 

you grow up,

you grow old,

you die

 

in the meantime,

you stop paying the rent, and the

landlord shuts off the heat

 

you knock up your

girlfriend’s sister

 

is it coming back now?

 

winter ’93, and everyone you know

is either perpetually stoned

or m.i.a.

 

you pull a double shift

at the truck stop

then give chrissy a lift

back to her place

 

do some shots with her,

a few lines.

leave her passed out on

the bathroom floor

 

figure her boyfriend can

deal with it

when he gets home

 

figure you’ve still got some time

to get over to caitlyn’s place

 

it’s not like she’s gonna

hold that grudge

forever

 

 

       John Sweet sends greetings from the rural wastelands of upstate NY. He is a firm believer in writing as catharsis, and in compassionate nihilism which, as luck would have it, has all the best bands. His published collections include No One Starves in a Nation of Corpses (2020 Analog Submission Press) and There’s Only One Way This Is Going to End (Cyberwit, 2023).

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         KJ Hannah Greenberg is eclectic. She’s played oboe, participated in martial arts, learned basket weaving, and studied Middle Eastern dancing. What’s more, she’s a certified herbalist, and an AP College Board-authorized teacher of calculus. 

       Her creative efforts have been nominated once for The Best of the Net in poetry, once for The Best of the Net in art, three times for the Pushcart Prize in Literature for poetry, once for the Pushcart Prize in Literature for fiction, once for the Million Writers Award for fiction, and once for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. To boot, Hannah’s had more than forty-five books published and has served as an editor for several literary journals.

      Check out her latest short fiction collection, An Orbit of Chairs:

https://www.amazon.com/Orbit-Chairs-KJ-Hannah-Greenberg/dp/B0CWMMM73T

      Within its pages are two tales originally published at Yellow Mama: "Alive Another Day" and "Light Notes."

     Channie's new art book, Life's Colors, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGCTHJ6Z, just launched (hit "read sample" button). It contains images originally published by Yellow Mama.