The Face on the Barroom Floor

The Paris Review

Article

Tomorrows

Mar 15, 2022

The night, as most nights, was like a dream. At ten, once I’d fed the dog the last scraps off the stove. Once I’d cursed the cat for scratching up my mama’s antique furniture, then welcomed him back into my arms. Once I’d slicked my hair into a ponyt

The Paris Review

Article

Uncontrollable, Irrelevant

Dec 6, 2022

My sister called me the other day. She wanted to let me know that I had once more been merciless and cruel in my relations with our parents. “They say there’s a lot of anger in you,” she said. “It makes them mad. It hurts their feelings. They think y

After Dinner Conversation: Philosophy

Article

Soul On Sale

Aug 10, 2022

I was waiting for the call at the telephone booth. I’d been waiting for fourteen or seventeen minutes and finally, I decided to leave. It was pointless. I only had a 20-dollar bill on me and no coins for the slot. Hard rain was coming, some type of s

The American Poetry Review

Article

Four Poems

Nov 1, 2022

Day after Thanksgiving. I give thanks for Eveto beat the rush of appreciating hernext year and let her sleep inuntil three hundred o’clock.Thank you light on the mountainfor being my star on cloudy nights.Thank you all the guns I’ve never ownedand ki

The Millions

Article

‘Cygnet’: Featured Fiction from Season Butler

Jun 25, 2019

A excerpt from Butler's debut coming-of-age novel, set in an appealingly rich world with quirky, flawed characters and a dramatic oceanfront landscape. The post ‘Cygnet’: Featured Fiction from Season Butler appeared first on The Millions.

After Dinner Conversation: Philosophy

Article

Prohibition

Sep 10, 2021

It had been ten days since my last fix. I knew what I was going to do was wrong, but unless you knew the yearning that your body exerts, the internal pull which strangles your very soul into submission, then you cannot judge me. Yes, it was wrong. Ye

The Paris Review

Article

The Duplex

Jun 9, 2020

I moved to Los Angeles to sing. When was this? August? June? I was twenty-nine, and those were shapeless months, when the days blended together and I refused to pull them apart. My landlord was unusually close to her adult son. His name was Jeffrey,

The Paris Review

Article

Peyton Burgess

Mar 9, 2021

Sometimes PB to my students, Sack to my friends, and always Pete to my family, my name is Peter Burgundy and I worry that death has been my only inspiration to be a better person—that death has had a way of making life understandable. And oh whoa, ho

The Millions

Article

Must-Read Poetry: September 2017

Sep 11, 2017

Isn’t that one of the purest goals of poetry—to justify our breaths? To recognize that we matter? The post Must-Read Poetry: September 2017 appeared first on The Millions.

After Dinner Conversation: Philosophy

Article

Lev’s Pawn Shop

Dec 10, 2022

In days gone by, it might have been said that Lev had had a vision, that he had been struck from his horse by the voice of God and seen the error of his ways. As it was, people said that he had gone a bit nutty in his old age, though it was unanimous