My Annual New Year’s Eve Message
Sean MurphyAs always, it’s a hell of a lot easier to keep things in perspective by considering the (increasing) number of our brothers and sisters who are struggling just to be,…
Mom, Johnny Mathis and Me
Despite accusations to the contrary leveled by friends (and especially family), I don't hate Christmas music so much as I'm allergic to cliché and kitsch -- and as such this…
What We Talk About When We Talk About Sex (In Fiction)
WRITING ABOUT SEX is like engaging in sex: it’s hard. Or, it should be. It’s that time of year again, where we can count on three things: shopping-related stress during…
Never Say Die: Celebrating Ozzy at 70
The Prince, on his Throne Happy 70th birthday to Ozzy Osbourne, the self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness. If you'd guessed, circa 1974, or 1984 (or 1994, etc.), that any of…
Original Short Fiction: The Letter My Father Never Wrote Me
I'm grateful to the excellent literary magazine Palooka for giving a home to my very short piece "The Letter My Father Never Wrote Me." If you like what you see,…
The Whiteness of the Whale: Remembering The White Album (Revisited)
Therefore, in his other moods, symbolize whatever grand or gracious thing he will by whiteness, no man can deny that in its profoundest idealized significance it calls up a peculiar…
Poem: To the ones that got away
Gratitude to Gyroscope for publishing this one (2017). To the ones that got away It wasn’t me, it was you. Accept this affirmation as the tardy alibi of an…
Something More Than a Superhero: Appreciating Stan Lee
Anyone who has written with some modest degree of success eventually, inevitably, is asked how they got started, who inspired them. My typical, and not untruthful answer, is that Stephen…
Poem: Joey Kocur’s Fist
Gratitude for Sport Literate for publishing this one (2016). Joey Kocur’s Fist Imagine a piano pounded to the point where its ivory bones are chipped. The black keys leaking…
Born In The U.S.A. or, Every Day Is Veterans Day (Revisited)
I. Personal Remember when Born in the U.S.A. was ubiquitous? The album and the song. Bruce was already big, but he wasn’t over the top. Born in the U.S.A. put…