Unlikely 2.0


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Editors' Notes

Maria Damon and Michelle Greenblatt
Jim Leftwich and Michelle Greenblatt
Sheila E. Murphy and Michelle Greenblatt

A Visual Conversation on Michelle Greenblatt's ASHES AND SEEDS with Stephen Harrison, Monika Mori | MOO, Jonathan Penton and Michelle Greenblatt

Letters for Michelle: with work by Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Jeffrey Side, Larry Goodell, mark hartenbach, Charles J. Butler, Alexandria Bryan and Brian Kovich

Visual Poetry by Reed Altemus
Poetry by Glen Armstrong
Poetry by Lana Bella
A Eulogic Poem by John M. Bennett
Elegic Poetry by John M. Bennett
Poetry by Wendy Taylor Carlisle
A Eulogy by Vincent A. Cellucci
Poetry by Vincent A. Cellucci
Poetry by Joel Chace
A Spoken Word Poem and Visual Art by K.R. Copeland
A Eulogy by Alan Fyfe
Poetry by Win Harms
Poetry by Carolyn Hembree
Poetry by Cindy Hochman
A Eulogy by Steffen Horstmann
A Eulogic Poem by Dylan Krieger
An Elegic Poem by Dylan Krieger
Visual Art by Donna Kuhn
Poetry by Louise Landes Levi
Poetry by Jim Lineberger
Poetry by Dennis Mahagin
Poetry by Peter Marra
A Eulogy by Frankie Metro
A Song by Alexis Moon and Jonathan Penton
Poetry by Jay Passer
A Eulogy by Jonathan Penton
Visual Poetry by Anne Elezabeth Pluto and Bryson Dean-Gauthier
Visual Art by Marthe Reed
A Eulogy by Gabriel Ricard
Poetry by Alison Ross
A Short Movie by Bernd Sauermann
Poetry by Christopher Shipman
A Spoken Word Poem by Larissa Shmailo
A Eulogic Poem by Jay Sizemore
Elegic Poetry by Jay Sizemore
Poetry by Felino A. Soriano
Visual Art by Jamie Stoneman
Poetry by Ray Succre
Poetry by Yuriy Tarnawsky
A Song by Marc Vincenz


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The Sheep
by Luis Rivas

She came into the porn shop at around 2:30 AM. They were getting ready to shut down shop: the big, tall, black and muscular cleaner was doing his rounds calling out that the arcade was now close, that if you're still in a movie booth, well, shit, yer ass gots ta go.

The clerk looked at the girl from behind the counter, at her brown purposeful eyes, her loose fitting white shirt that hid her small braless tits and accentuated her dark brown nipples, her nervous shaking hands that hung by her sides. She smiled awkwardly, her face contorting and making her look ugly -- which she was not. She was neither ugly nor beautiful in the typical sense of the word; she always looked sick and her eyebrows were always upturned which made her look sad and that provoked sympathy that leads to a co-dependent attraction.

She knew why she was there. The clerk and cleaner did not, and they went on working. Two guys walked out from the dark arcade and the cleaner shouted, "AYE, AYE, COME EAR MAN!" The two men looked at each other and tried to figure out who the cleaner was talking to. The cleaner shouted, "MAN, AYE, YOU FUCKED UP THE BOOTH! NIGGA, WHERE'S MA MUHFUKIN TIP?" Both men didn't speak English and looked at the clerk with confusion and terror. The clerk was used to this, to men cuming all over the booths and the cleaner confronting them and their stories of denial, of no, es not me! haci estaba, it huaz like dat my fren! -- the clerk was used to this and allowed everything to happen, the cuming and the confrontations. The men saw that there was no chance in reaching an understanding with either the spectating clerk or the shouting, big, really fucking big cleaner and so one of the guys weighed it out in his head, sighed, pushed the other guy into the counter and bolted toward the door. The cleaner ran after him. The clerk watched. The man shoved the girl out of his way and she slammed her head against the wall and her body went limp and fell to the ground, the door chime ringing over and over again.

The cleaner went to her and shook her. "Aye girl, yo. Wake up!"

There was no response at first. The clerk came over with a bottle of water and emptied it all over her face. "AYE MAN!” said the cleaner. "Don't drown the bitch!"

The girl came to. "You ah-ite?" said the cleaner. "Yea," she said, getting up to her feet. The clerk went behind the counter and sat down.

She was unfazed. She knew what she was there for; she had purpose. Purpose is the driving force in successful men and women, she thought.

She walked to the section. She scanned up and down, looking for it. Fuck, were they out? she thought. No, no, not now, not after all this, all this crap, she thought, her eyes straining to find it, scanning too fast from left to right, top to bottom. Haste makes waste, calm down, she thought. She sighed, tried to slow down her hyper anxiety-driven heart rate.

And there it was. And it was beautiful.

The box was a little dusty but the dust was also beautiful. Life was beautiful. The store was beautiful. The cleaner was beautiful. The clerk's disconnectedness was beautiful. Human desire was beautiful. She grabbed the box and took it up to the counter.

"$19.99. After tax: $21.65," said the clerk. "Accept Discover?" she said. "Yes."

She paid, said "thank you" and walked out. She couldn't wait to get home so she got in her car and took out the box and ripped it apart. She took it out and looked at it first, studying it. She took the plastic blow-up sheep to her lips and began blowing furiously into the air valve. She got severely light-headed but kept going. After it was fully blown up she reached into her pants and began masturbating with her right hand, her left hand stroking the head of the fake plastic sheep, feeling the cold smooth texture of it on her fingers, feeling the sheep's fake tiny hooves, stroking and fingering the fake asshole, hearing the bahing coming out of the small speaker, baaah, baah, baaaah. It was beautiful. She moaned. Her eyes rolled back into her head, her moans getting louder, reaching it, almost there, getting close, her right hand moving at a ferocious speed while the other was now grabbing the sheep, squeezing it, her fingers flicking her clit violently and everything went bright, blinding-white and she came and kept cuming and hot tears streamed down her face and she couldn't stop them.


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