fringeLIT is an online literary journal devoted to writers with vision and skill. We publish work demonstrating raw energy and timelessness.
We want work that is alive. This is a venue for serious writers frustrated with the tastes of the academic literary establishment.

Blue Chips

Written by Dan Frankenfield

 

Miss DeAngeles
gives us chips
to subtract with.
She shows us,
sliding hers
around and
I can't keep
track of mine.
Where are the rest
of your chips, she asks.

I don't know, I tell her
I can't find them.

Bradley can't find
the rest of his chips.
She tells us to
sit in the corner,
and figure out
where the chips are
while she reads
to the class.
We check the table
and under the chairs.

Miss DeAngeles
gives a word search
with the spelling words.
I look for a
Towel.  I have
everything else
but a towel.
Bradley has
a towel but can't
find a shovel.

You two sit, she says
until you figure it out.

But still no chips
she goes on reading.
I have a shovel.
Bradley has a towel
and there we sit,
shovel and towel,
thinking of ways
to kill that pig.
But we just can't
figure it out.

 

Page 12 of 59

Most Popular

  • Apology To A Poem I Forgot To Write
    Hey pen…     hey paper…look - I know I told you that     we’d spend more time together     last night, andI’m really sorry…     I guess I just got carried away     doing all of the things that I do. I lost track of time, it seems,     and by the time I realized     that…
    in Poetry Read 5660 times
  • Angles
     a slipshod sculpture of poorly-welded and rusty metalin a case by the doornot on displaybut ogled nonethelessby bespectacled connoisseurs of nothing but their own opinionswho cluck their tonguesand tell youwhat is andwhat isn'tartfulwhile they whittle away their turpentine-saturated existenceswatching
    in Poetry Read 5152 times
  • My Pee Buddy 'N' Me
    It must be said that I don't keep a regular urinary schedule or anything like that. I drink seven bottles of water a day (for good luck), and so I go two or three times in an afternoon. It was just a coincidence that Indian Doctor and I met twice…
    in Fiction Read 3651 times
  • Metal Between My Legs
    The concept of happiness floats like a feather over my head But it isn’t obeying the laws of gravity It looms over me, motionless, quiet, and dull Like the height requirement on a roller coaster to a short kid Both of us are incapable of grasping what hangs over us…
    in Poetry Read 3286 times
  • Polaroids
     “You know Bonnie, right?”“No.”  I lied. I didn't want to be bothered, not by Tim Snyder, not in the middle of a quiz in the math class I was already failing, and definitely not about Bonnie.“Sure you do, I see you with her all the time.”“Oh, yeah.  She lives in…
    in Fiction Read 2805 times

Recently Added

  • Untitled XIII
    The shopping carts of sticky cansWords she took too hardDishes rotting in the sinkWet mail in the yardThe days you can't wake up and thinkStaring drunkthrough the windowfor hoursHereBetween scenesAlong the inexhaustibleand exhausting stretchesof inertiathat connectthe dotsof joy
    in Poetry Read 261 times
  • Skin
    Onto the subwayWalks a manFace burnedBy acidPeering at passengersFrom cocktail onionsPushed into wet mudI give him some moneyOthers follow suitTouch their own facesTo make sureThey're still themAnd he's still heSkin is a tough bitchSlit open and friedTries hardTo stay trueIf it failsIt still triedStill keeps each hellOn the appropriate side
    in Poetry Read 211 times
  • Untitled VII
    Lack of oxygen to the brainor a lack of brainThe latter: head traumaThe former: everything elseUntil thenyour bodydevoted to your brainfills incessant ordersfor glucose and oxygenKeeps you alivewhether you deserve itor notDeath lays her eggs in your heartand the earth takes you backafter life has molestedand infected youMurdered in an…
    in Poetry Read 213 times
  • Peep Show
    Popped into apeep showon Seventh Avenueto jam a fork in my heartandleave a messof moltendeath A handful of menbrowsed DVDsand pickedtheir balls A lone Guatemalanmopped the stalls Hacked up and de-bonedmen walk the citiesdicks yawninghearts sleeping Loveand desiretied togetherlike shoeson a wire
    in Poetry Read 211 times
  • Tale of the Intellectual Harlot
      Western donor goverments have bought and paid for the loyalty of local Bangladeshi intellectuals: these latter say whatever the donors want them to.  These are the intellectual harlots.  
    in Poetry Read 723 times Read more...