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By Doug Holder microchondria: forty-two short stories collected by the Harvard Book Store. (Harvard Book Store http://www.harvard.com) $10. Marc Goldfinger,( the poetry editor of Spare Change News), at a recent meeting of Somerville's Bagel Bards handed me a small anthology of short stories he was included in titled: "microchondria…" This is a collection of forty-two short stories collected by the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass. According to the introduction to the book, on Feb. 1, 2010 a call was sent out by the book store that stated they would publish a book of original short stories. There was a deadline of Feb. 17, 2010.They got a slew of submissions from around the world. They edited the book and had it printed on March 1, 2010 from their newfangled in store, print-on-demand book machine " Paige M. Gutenborg." |
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The stories in this collection are very short… flash fiction, I presume. Marc Goldfinger's story is a winner, titled: "Are you My Girl or What?" It is a litmus test of love that comes in the form of a cup of java thrown in a love object's face.
Jennifer Carol Cook's story "Falling" uses the backdrop of a snowy day as the setting for the dying embers of a love affair. In this passage the girl knows the dye-has-been-cast:
" Her fingers grew numb around the half-formed snowball. She looked up again to a screeching sky. The black birds were falling and falling. They looked as though they were dying."
There are a lot of solid, short reads in this book for your back pocket.
Recommended.
Lyrical Somerville edited by Doug Holder
Local poet Coleen Houlihan writes:
For the past year I've been working with a group called Congo Action Now which is trying to raise awareness on the atrocities happening in the Congo. After a while, I discovered my work with them was infiltrating my writing. Quite a few poems and stories now have an eye on 'the other.' Those people whose lives are hard, who are in danger, whose futures are uncertain. Yet, the more I write about 'the other,' the more greatly I see myself. I celebrate my freedom and acknowledge my frailty. There is power in this-if only we could all do it.
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Coleen T. Houlihan is a writer who studied at Wellesley College . She has featured in a variety of Massachusetts poetry events such as: Stone Soup, Best Sellers, Borders, the Sherman Cafe and Walden Poetry Series. Coleen has published her poetry in Main Street Rag 2010), Poesy, Bellowing Ark, Spare Change, The Alewife, The Wilderness House Literary Review, Ibbetson Street Press, Spoonful: A Gathering of Stone Soup Poets, MoJo! The Maps One Journal and even in a journal out of England . To contact her or see more of her work, go to: www.coleenthoulihan.com. If you are interested in finding out about Congo Action Now, go to: www.congoactionnow.weebly.com.
The Joining of Women and Children
Always there is the joining,
the indistinguishable separation of flesh,
moving down the birth passage,
then to nourishing breast.
Never without the imprint of a woman's hand,
little boys are not separate selves,
either they join the flock of children
or stand beside mother's dress.
Men are never separate long
there is always the press to join
a woman's skin and render self
indistinguishable, cast away
the solitary masculine stand.
Then one day woman bears child
and acts out man's symbolic life
so that woman and child are linked again,
and man becomes a father.
Finally, man is given a choice.
Separate and cast away or
always be a supporter of those lives
are some of the decisions.
War and destruction are other
ways to sever symbolic touch.
Still always there is the joining,
the phrase spoken in many tongues:
X number of women and children killed.
Bodies mingled.
Indistinguishable.
Women and children.
Us.
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