Follow Austin Islam on Twitter: @austincharcoal

  christophe colomb the smell of wet cedar, in the alley that sundown orange that left the east green, storms rising and blowing through   and the rain coming down, the old copper roof of st. cecile singing   we fight about specific actions, about the definitions of words   and secret counting undoes the […]

  When we met you were angry. You felt as if the universe had cheated you from a proper life. Of course, it had not. The dice were rolled the same for you as for everyone else. “Look, I already have thirty two years done with,” you say, “I am not starting over.” You pace […]

    —Abbo Abbo Abdas throwing him from a rocky precipice, decapitation, murderousness, stabbing and bleeding out, sawing the living body, laceration with shards of pottery—     —weaving his arms and legs through the spokes of a wheel atop an upright pole, lashing one foot to one hand and hanging from this bondage, in lieu […]

  Horses   Two horses   Two horses in a field   Fucking In the wind   And staring Straight ahead At nothing       Almost Ghost   I want to be a ghost slipping along unseen in a hoody down dark green alleys   I want to be a ghost ghostwriting ghostwords on white […]

  Who puts Jesus’ mom in a bar? Bill Owens wondered. In some ways it comforted him. It was nice to have Mary keeping an eye on him while he drank. He turned his back to the statue in the alcove above bottles of whiskey and tequila and staggered out of the 24th Street Bar […]

  Jordan is in his apartment. His roommate Noah is in the apartment. Jordan and Noah are sitting on the floor. Noah says, “Stephen Colbert interviewed Eminem on a public access TV show that aired only in Monroe, Michigan.” Jordan says, “Cool.” Jordan says, “Do you want to drink beer with me?” Noah says, “I’m […]

  You don’t know what you would do until you’re faced with doing it, and then after doing it faces you with what you did. What you did: Had your old roommate over on a Monday night. Last night. You called him Bean, his first name rubbed away, rubbed clean, smooth with the weight of […]