Black Scat Review

The surrealist review, Black Scat Review, has just arrived. I have a few pieces in there that are from my forthcoming book, WHY GOD IS A WOMAN.  One of them begins:


On the Island where I grew up

I was only a boy when I first saw God.  I remember the day exactly. I lived in a small neighborhood of twelve stone houses where all the girls in my neighborhood were called Angelina and all the men were old.  Every year tourists visited the Island in the fall after the summer plagues of insects had passed, when the air was reputed to be the purest on the planet.  So pure was the air in fact, it glittered and appeared to contain tiny glass windows.  The Islanders liked to say that if you peered into the windows, you would see what heaven looked like.  Gullible tourists spent hours staring at the shimmering air, seeking their own personal glimpse of eternity . . .


There are some lovely pieces in this review.  Below is an excerpt from "Alter" by Michelle Gray:

I had a dream I was a man. I had a dream that I was one.  I remember feeling love or something like it and bodies intertwined in tender embraces basking in the illusion of safety.  Now I'm awake and I see that it was the dream of another man.  I can't afford illusions.  There's no point in wanting.  There's no point in needing.  There is no way to guard against loneliness and the absurd relentlessness of living.  If one cannot escape from the pain, one must become one with it and become another thing.