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.
Poetry

Stitch

Written by James McGeoy

 

We skinned our knees-
Tore right through the denim and thread
Donated little dots of blood to the stony ground
Like droplets of crimson from television tubes
I flinched when you fell and wished we could trade
Positions until I washed up alongside you
Out of breath and taken by a solid
Faces down, forming right angles with the passersby
We gripped hands and exhaled while every other worry
Was replaced by our shared trauma
We exchanged rips with shreds and learned without
Of our shape and structure within

---

Several times the gap widened far enough apart
Between us to fool our eyes with blurry shapes
And the rising threads of heat
Squinting, I could barely make out your face
The separation brought on images of
Candles hovering without ever mixing
Their hot wax with the paper thin floor that
Separated my subconscious from my desire
Sometimes I'd try to read the floor
When there weren't words I felt around for braille
But the only dots I ever felt were red and smearing
Swirling around, eyes closed, I'd paint your face

---

My nerve endings entwined into a rope
Long enough to reach you
Only now are we closer than before the gap
And gravity showed us the meaning of distance

Rewind

Written by Nick Sallade

You are attracted to dicks

And not the genitalia kind

The ones that are pigs

With only sex on their mind

Not that you don’t like it

You sometimes take it from behind,

But that is the only thing

That keeps you two combined,

He’s slept with other girls

But you just press rewind

And start over again

As if you both were blind

To the world around you

Where someone else might find

You a wonderful person

Unlike the one you are entwined,

He is the biggest of jerks

Only in this for the bump and grind.

Lose him and find someone

That sees you as sweet and kind

Not just a piece of meat to fuck.

Page 4 of 16

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 5662 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 5153 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 3652 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 3287 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 2806 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...