ISSUE 28 | MAY 2013

TRAUMA AND LAUGHTER

“Funny Story” by Ellis Calvin

Michael Kinnucan

On the Jerk

moments of intense humiliation - what color the walls were - my hand shot up - what a little turd! - the iron law of egos - when the event burst through the door - certain vicissitudes or derivations - Louis CK and Jerking Off - half the studio audience would be openly sobbing - Baudelaire, That Jerk - a prose poem from Paris Spleen entitled « Beat the Poor »

Sara Pheasant

At the Front Line of the Punch Line: Or, Simone Weil goes to War

an anarchist militia - Simone Weil - uncompromising politics and inventive theology - Buenaventura Durruti - playing the clown - expectation transformed into nothing - the Dad-Humor Phenomenon - smash the lightbulb with a hammer - a pitchfork in the air

Matthew Goldin

Tender Violations

or, if the porno has a storyline - the tickler and the tickled - the « money shot » - a comeuppance to her impotent husband - Straw Dogs - « cheers from feminists » - a fragment of consent - hand-to-hand combat - magic circle - How can one be deflated without being full of hot air? - skipping to the punchline

Hannah Clark

Cremains

my grandmother’s urn tucked under his arm - unbreakable, waterproof, light-tight and ugly - 1 hour per 100 lbs. of body - Do The Honors - The first myth about « spreading ashes » - dance around rusted anchors - U.S. law forbids the cremation of - cracked irreparably

Zach Conn

I find America before Paul Simon can

downing weak cups of coffee at the Waffle House, - listening to the waitresses sigh about daughters

Ryan Walach

Afterthought to “A Robo-Poet Does Not Scare Us”