Alan Squire Publishing

A Small Press With Big Ideas

Current News

Lục bát for Early Winter November again, And the soft ice had been returned  By a low sun. I'd learned  Nothing: the same street turned early To dark; the man bitter From glasses of pearly Champagne I'd egged Him to buy. The lamps begged Off their halos, cold, pegged me for That inevitable worn- Out shame. Tell me, what more could I Have asked of love but my Intimacy with blame? November again, And the soft ice had been returned  By a low sun. I'd learned  Nothing: the same street turned early To dark; the man bitter From glasses of pearly Champagne I'd egged Him to buy. The lamps … [Read more...]

DULCET TONES ON PLUTO I go to Pluto. Imagination  faster than any rocket.   387 degrees below zero.     We bring beach blankets.   And stars, psychedelic popcorn!   They resist being counted,  dislike getting herded  into an equation.     A soothing night settles around us.   Five moons fluff our pillows.   I go to Pluto. Imagination  faster than any rocket.   387 degrees below zero.     We bring beach blankets.   And stars, psychedelic popcorn!   They resist being counted,  dislike getting herded  into an equation.     A soothing night settles around us.   Five moons … [Read more...]

On Eating Walleye Pike at the St. Paul Grill These are FARMED, Grandpa, something you could never have imagined  as you sat patiently chewing on the stump of a cold cigar, straw fishing hat squished down over your bald head, "There's Old Man Diamond,"  Daddy would tease, as you sat waiting for  the solitary-as-you-were walleye pike as he   swirled at the bottom of Big Floyd Lake.   They cooked it in PECANS AND MAPLE SYRUP, Grandma, a taste you could never imagine, as you stood aproned, the red gingham curtains behind you and that old toilet that ran all the time as background … [Read more...]

Houses You send me another one, at work, mid-morning,  pixels flying through the ether to form pictures of a life five feet closer to perfect: emails that link to dream house after dream house, each one more virtuous than the next, at the beach, in the city, hidden in towns we've never heard of. You don't tire of looking because what if it exists- that single spectacular find-like an undiscovered planet in an infant universe spinning miles from the skittish dogs next door, the cops stopped across the street again, and the bleary-eyed woman, cigarette alight,  whose … [Read more...]

Carrying a Friend "Carrying a Friend" originally appeared in Bone & Ink Press / Shut Down Strangers & Hot Rod Angels: an anthology inspired by the music of Bruce Springsteen. The thing is the guy, I don't know, I thought I could trust the guy. He was older, seemed like he knew the ropes. I had seen him coming out of that place where they hung out. Salerno's. It's a Starbucks now but back then it was the place, these made guys coming and going all day, younger ones standing around outside feeling at their waistbands every time someone they didn't know got within a block. The … [Read more...]