Scott Hightower “Cool Limbo” Michael Montlack NYQ Books, 978-1-935520-40-5, $15.95 One unique aspect of a gay sensibility is that of valuing things for their intrinsic presence or style rather than their assigned “socially invested” value; ie, if the pin sparkles and swirls, it may still be fabulous — even it appears to be gold and diamond and is only made with pot metal and paste. Long after the 1950’s gay men still snapped...

Dylan James Brock While Sarah Witherspoon was still alive she was a mockingbird with a tin ear. Her attempts to recreate beauty never did justice to what she mimicked. When not insulting her outright, people called her Spoony. She was a plain brunette with thin hair and a thick brow that kept her from being pretty. The most remarkable aspect of her was how hard she tried and failed to be remarkable. Spoony wore different colored sneakers to...

Stephen Cramer St. Louis, ’44: Miles was 18, fresh out of high school, & seeing Bird & Diz on one stage was a daydream to rival his most carnal. When he heard those escalating exchanges, the opposite of gravity, it was like the first time he rode an elevator: when Diz hit floor three, Miles’ heart filled his shoes. As they climbed, he imagined smashing through the ceiling to cruise among stars beyond the Milky Way, that...

Howie Good 1 A man jammed fistfuls of earth into his mouth. And why not when nations sell weapons to their enemies? The weather arrived late, a funeral with only four mourners. All his life he liked to wander through cemeteries. If everyone is doing it, someone said, it must be OK. 2 Probably the first paint was animal blood. He asked for a razor. Born on a cold day, he took with him a heart always about to break. He was found, years...

Stephen Cramer The 16 inch slash from his left nipple around to his backbone wouldn’t cripple his style, but having his chest muscles cut, his ribs pried apart so surgeons could root through artery & bone: that might. Still, they collapsed his lung, steered toward the fist-sized tumor trapped between his heart & spine… Dis here finado, he liked to say that year, though it wasn’t over, not quite: his side sewn...

Allyson Paty By what grace can two men stand in equal stillness while each minute settles like exhaust when it rises and drifts to the edge of the city. There is the man who musters his snake limbs. There are the stones that he shakes against his chest. Then you, Raimund. On what nerve do you undress for a crowd. And with what can you lie while you wait for Snake Limbs to place his stones along each ridge of your spine as though...

Alan Drew PART 3 OF 4 Read Part 1 Here Read Part 2 Here She made the mistake of turning on the television–something to relieve the silence of the house–and there he was on the evening news, a headline, one of three bodies. On a radio talk show a psychologist discussed the state of our children and included David in an epidemic of childhood immorality that included the burning of a church, the beating of a woman in Golden Gate...

Urgent. Simple. Beautiful. San Diego songwriter Jeffrey Paul Lupo's debut album throbs like an ocean sunset. This month, we're pleased to offer a full stream of "You're in Golden Light."

"With such mayhem, lay your body down." Jeff plays three tracks for his Fogged Clarity session.

Rachael Lyon Sometimes I wonder whether I was robbed of some rich diction, having grown up in a landlocked place. The smells of sea don’t make me sick for home, nor do the names of fish or coastal birds. Or this: a sound. That means one thing to me. But it haunts you, this land formation made by flood or glacial carve. The dark arm of an ocean reaching past the salty shore in all her sulk. This world is full of real life fishmongers,...