Alan Squire Publishing

A Small Press With Big Ideas

Elevator in the Brain Hotel By Richard Peabody Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 after> When we kiss   the tiny snake in my ear slithers out just so   to entwine the shiny snake in your ear.   You slip your pointy tongue behind my teeth   and our tiny snakes coil and rise between us   mirroring a double helix   or some science crap we're missing out on   because we cut class to kiss in the space   behind my locker where I have a pile   of pillows and a battery-operated   lantern.     When you open your eyes   and … [Read more...]

revisions to the catalogue of folktale types By Kathleen Hellen Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> 410 needs to be revised: "Once upon a time" needs to be once upon a time when you were dormant (not a doormat...) when you passed out in the tragedy intrinsic to awakening, when princes climbed the ladder princes think is manning like peyton quarterbacking, more a habit of the Grimm than subtle magic ™ with the wand that does the trick (shall I say it?)-of pleasuring. Why take chances   with happy ever after? With wicked exes? In-laws? Sisters? You have to … [Read more...]

Unreliable By Ellen White Rook Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> Maybe the poet killed someone and buried them on a night so dark she can't find the spot, just memories of stone on stone. Even the spade disappears in her driftwood hands, in the broken laths, in the crumbling foundation cramped with rampant daffodils.   Maybe she killed the poet and swallowed shreds of yeast and tears. Maybe she was a whale of oil-lit caverns, a palace for suffering biblical satisfaction. Maybe she birthed an orchard of discarded cores.   The poet wrote letters on a scrap … [Read more...]

Keep Your Dead Close By Leslie Pietrzyk  Essay ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> A story about my dead husband begins "I remember" or "remember how": "Remember how Robb stapled yellow-highlighted Xeroxes of restaurant listings for every driving trip, and we'd eat six different barbecues in one day, and he knew whether we should order chopped or ribs and if the hush puppies were famous, and how he'd go, 'Pecan pie here is worth belly space.'"             I want people to laugh at these stories, to nod in recognition. I'm practiced and tell the stories effectively. I quote … [Read more...]

Sibling By Cassady O'Reilly-Hahn Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> Open the moon: the ocean is a yolk breaking invisible in the grooves of your hair. My fingers trickle down your spine. This is as close as I can get to telling you I am still listening for your next breath. < before after> Cassady O'Reilly-Hahn is a poet with an MA from Claremont Graduate University. He is a managing editor for Foothill: A Poetry Journal that highlights graduate student voices. He works for AudioEyes, a company that describes TV and film for blind viewers. In his free … [Read more...]

Dow By Thomas Sorensen Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> Dusty sills of half-peeled fruit. Phonebooks stir in subway draughts. Paintings fade, the wall's soft rippling. A blanker page of acres turns. What home's rapport of flesh and glass could last through such an acid age? In the night street's rich ellipsis, your window darkens, one more dot. < before after> Thomas Sorensen is currently enjoying a short interval between his Ph.D. and postdoctoral fellowship, both in English literature. His poetry is forthcoming or has previously appeared in Variant Lit, … [Read more...]

Credits for a Film about Missing People By Anya Trofimova Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> < before after> Anya Trofimova is a young poet from London, England. Her work has appeared in Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Fly on the Wall Press and Chautauqua Literary Journal, among others, and has been recognised by the Erbacce Prize and FOYLE Young Poets of the Year Award. … [Read more...]

A Goodbye By Peter J. Houle Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> Last night, I dreamt I kissed you on the cheek, and you cried. As I waited for the bus later in the morning, I saw a little boy wave goodbye to the sea. < before after> Peter J. Houle, MA is an 80s kid from Vermont, and has traveled a lot. He liked how Portuguese sounds and how Lisbon looks, so he unpacked his backpack there six years ago and even started planting seeds. Poems of his have appeared in Sandstorm Journal, In Parentheses, and in the Wingless Dreamer anthology The Book of Black. You … [Read more...]

How Was Your Day? By Pasquale Trozzolo Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> All I hear are low notes and misery. Tell me instead of boats and clouds of speed and sex and dreams and bad ideas. Tell me without the clutter. Be impersonal. Shocking. Off-kilter. Abduct me with a dangerous tale. Tell me you like the way I hold my drink. Touch my hand. Whisper something stirring. Make me nervous. Be my stranger. Just for tonight. < before after> Pasquale Trozzolo is founder of one of the leading advertising and public relations firms in the Midwest. He also spent … [Read more...]

Ceviche and Bachelor's Buttons By Richard Peabody Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> Dipping your toes into foamy surf your lips into salty ice   a satisfied sandpiper skipping along the Atlantic Basin   Love unrequited an apogee   The push and pull of continental shards   Pecking order of the gods Who nod out while watching our Truman shows   And miss the good parts < before after> Peabody is perhaps best known as one of the founding editors for Gargoyle Magazine, which he largely funded with his own income. He is also editor … [Read more...]

Center Square Oblivion By Ellen White Rook Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> We sat on your brown couch which used to be my brown couch in your fifth-floor apartment overlooking the park which used to be my fifth-floor apartment overlooking the park. You poured a torrent of Chardonnay and shook your bland Brad Pitt dirty blonde hair. The Park lamps, which were supposed to look like wrought iron gaslights, washed circles of dog tracks and boot prints in the blue snow. It was the beginning of a new year, but it was as if every living thing had disappeared. You lied … [Read more...]

Don't Fall in Love in a Physics Classroom By Leeor Margalit Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> There are books thrown across the floor and empty bottles at the foot of the bed and clothes falling off of hangers and it's not because I'm lazy... it's just in science class we learned about entropy: a clean room is more likely to become messier than a messy room so I'm just saving the universe some trouble. If I start off loving you with a broken heart, it's nothing personal it's just efficient. Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation states that any two bodies in the … [Read more...]

Hermes at the Kakistocracy Hotel By James J. Patterson Essay ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before It is a late Sunday afternoon in downtown Atlanta. The Conference on Myth, Fantasy, and Imagination, on the last of its four days, is taking a breather between the afternoon lectures and mealtime festivities. The conference is a serious affair and most people are here because of their work. Psychologists, art therapists, writers, scholars, health care specialists, and people for whom lifting the lid of the psyche is quest, a devotion, and for more than a few, a last resort. The book … [Read more...]