Gene Goldfarb

Civil Sex

Commentator: If ladies were only ladies, and gentlemen, still gentlemen, this is how it would play out…

She is luxuriating in her bed as he approaches, coming from his bedroom.

He: May I join you?

She: You have only to ask, love.

He: I would further request–

She: I thought you’d never ask. Of course.

He: I’m having trouble. It’s a little tight down there.

She: Don’t worry. I’ll provide some liquidity.

He: It’s working. With a bit of a push, I’ll be in.

She: There. I think you’ve got it.

He: There, I’m in. Oh, the gates of heaven have sprung for me.

She: I knew you’d succeed.

He: It’s warm.

She: I’m sure that’s the way you like it.

He: Ah! The squash of unwashed don’t know what they’re missing.

She: Now, that I’ve got you by your nether parts, it’s a thrill.

He: No. I don’t mind it a bit. This is bliss.

Commentator: And that’s how it’s done among the upper classes.

Jacklyn Henry

Alibi

An urgent knock came to the front door of my apartment just as I finished giving Private Ernesto Salazar the best blowjob of his life.

Holy shit, Salazar exclaimed sitting up from his prone position at the center of my bed. He helped me up from a position on my knees. That was the best blowjob of my life!

As a second knock sounded, I ran to the bathroom, my new breasts bouncing. I caught my reflection and smiled. Bouncing breasts were new to me. Of course, I also frowned when I noticed my worthless penis. Whatever, I muttered.

Wiping Pvt Salazar’s cum from my lips, I pulled on a floor-length silk kimono and turned for the door.

Police! Open up. Urgent but not demanding.

I noticed a nervous look on Salazar’s face, as to why I could not guess, and I motioned him to stay in the bedroom.

I’m AWOL, he whispered.

Of course, you are. I shook my head and left him cowering.

At the door I took a breath, synched my kimono tighter, and turned the knob. Two police officers in cheap suits turned to face me. One – tall, young, slender, very attractive – smiled, almost apologetically and with a hint of curiosity. The other – short, overweight, older, balding – held no expression. Both look up, noted my height, my breasts, and my lack of make-up.

Good morning, the short, round cop said, Ma’am. He said it more as a statement than pleasantry. When sitting I could nominally pass, especially with the new boobs, but standing? Forget it. Too fucking tall.

Ma’am? Really? I pulled the door wide. Honey, fucking please.

The tall, handsome cop, stifled a chuckle.

How can I help you two at this unwieldy hour?

Can we come inside? Old Detective asked.

Certainly. Pardon the mess and my freaked-out friend in the bedroom.

Friend? Young Detective asked.

Casual acquaintance, you know how it is, don’t you? I looked directly at Officer Handsome Big Bulge and he smiled, nodded at me, then crossed the threshold into my living room. Old Detective followed. Pvt Ernesto Salazar shuffled around in the bedroom, finally going into the bathroom and shutting the door.

I’m Detective Murphy and this is Detective Callahan, Old Detective gestured to Young Detective, to whom I looked at directly with great curiosity.

Please tell me your first name is Harry. I asked.

It is.

No fucking way. I put a hand to my mouth and laughed in utter delight. Sorry to curse, but that’s lovely.

My parents were fans.

So, it seems.

Can I see your gun? I surprised both of them with the question.

Detective Callahan coughed once. An odd reaction, I thought, but immediately understood his confusion. Double entendre intentional.

Your registered firearm, Detective Callahan. I am hoping for a 44 magnum. Eight-inch barrel, of course.

Of course, but no. I carry a Glock 19.

Bummer. Does your weapon have an eight-inch barrel.

Naw. It’s kind of average.

Average is good.

Is it?

Can be.

Um…what the fuck are you talking about, Callahan? Detective Murphy flush with confusion and a degree of impatience snapped. Callahan sheepishly shrugged. I pondered, a moment, Callahan’s barrel length.

So, Miss…?

Oh…yes. Sorry. I’m Jacklyn, Jacklyn Henry.

Jacklyn, Detective Murphy said. I immediately recognized the tone and that he didn’t quite accept me as a Jacklyn, even with expensive, near perfect manmade breasts, facial feminization, and ten years of HRT. Fuck my height.

Well despite your confusion, I am Jacklyn. I may have started as Jack a lifetime ago, but here I am, honey. My temper flared. Three inches short of 100% woman. I moved my hand to the opening of my robe and gestured as if to flash them my little 3” penis. Detective Murphy put a hand up and looked away, Detective Callahan stared at me expectantly. I took note.

No…no ma’am. Completely do not care. Your business. Murphy had blanched red in the face and I let a bemused smile drift across my face. I pulled my hand away from the robe opening and crossed my arms.

So, what’s the deal, gentlemen?

Do you recognize the name Anthony Paul? Detective Callahan asked.

Of course, he lives downstairs by the laundry room. Nice guy, very private but we chat from time to time.

Would you say you knew him well? Callahan said.

Well? No. I mean, if we saw each other we talked. Nothing more, really.

About? Murphy chimed in.

I don’t know. Anything, you know? Things going on. Current events. Weather. You know? Whatever came to mind. I took a few steps forward, suddenly curious and increasingly concerned. Tony and I knew each other well enough to help each other out. When I had a surgery, he would be my ride to and from, and then would care for me post-op. I took care of his cat, Lulu, when he traveled somewhere overnight. We never shared a romantic interest in one another, although we fucked on occasion. I needed a friend more than a relationship. I could count my friends on one hand.

Where were you earlier this morning, around 2 am?

I was here, Detective Callahan. In my bedroom.

Where you alone?

No, the man making all the noise in the bathroom was here. We just got back from a bar and were…you know.

Ma’am? Detective Murphy said.

Please don’t call me ma’am. Really. I finally sat in an overstuffed chair and carefully crossed my legs. I sighed. I think you can guess what we were doing.

Yes…um…yes, Murphy coughed out.

Do you want to ask him? Of course, you do. Ernesto, come out here please. Neither detective objected.

It took a second but Ernesto popped out of the bedroom. The police asked him his name and address, which he stuttered out.

Honey, these officers…

Detectives.

Detectives want to know where I was last night around two am? And they don’t care if you are AWOL or not.

Pvt Ernesto Salazar nodded in acknowledgement, then pondered his response, blushed at the recollection and shyly looked at his feet.

Honey, you actually have to say it out loud.

He looked up, his eyes wide and fearful, but like a true marine, he spoke the truth when asked by authorities. Well, most marines. We were fucking. 

There you go, gentlemen. I crossed and recrossed my legs, ala Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Callahan caught a glimpse and grinned like a schoolboy seeing pussy the first time. We were fucking.

Callahan and Murphy traded glances. Callahan then looked at me with a bit of a twinkle in his eye. I returned the look. And Murphy just sat there trying to unswallow his tongue. Pvt Ernesto Salazar stayed silent.

And I have receipts. The tab at the bar, the Uber receipt. You can go there if you want and ask the bartender, Danny. We know each other. No way you can forget a 6’5” tranny, now can you? Flicks on University.

Callahan scribbled a note and said: I know it.

I was hoping, I purred.

Another look. Another twinkle.

So really, fellas. What the fuck? I’m guessing Tony’s dead or something?

Why would you say that?

Enough cop shows. I feigned a hyper masculine voice. We’re canvassing the area, asking all the neighbors, looking for clues. Shit like that.

Detective Callahan closed his notebook and leaned back on the couch. He crossed and uncrossed his legs and I shivered. I felt certain he had an eight-inch barrel on his weapon.

Wow, very perceptive, Jacklyn. Callahan said, and I liked the way he said my name, in his rich baritone voice. Goosebumps littered across my arms. I shivered. The room felt warm and cold at the same time.

Thanks, honey. I tried to contain my attraction but seemed to be failing.

Seriously, that is what we are doing. They found Anthony…Tony out behind the apartment building about an hour ago, deceased.

Deceased? As in murdered?

Seemingly. Murphy wanted to remain evasive so as to not give anything away that they might already know but then Callahan blurted out, gunshot to back of the head.

I sat down quickly, tears welled in my eyes. We were fuckbuddies, and I loved him, and I denied to myself that we were in a relationship. 

Callahan stood and moved in front of me, crouching down and taking my hand.

Are you going to be okay?

Yes, I’ll be fine. Just a bit of a shock.

Pvt Ernesto Salazar broke the silence by asking to be dismissed. Murphy waved him off and he quickly rushed from my apartment.

Call me, I murmured after the door shut, then laughed quietly. Story of my life.

Bar scene’s like that, Callahan said somberly.

Murphy cleared his throat.

I think we’re done here.

Detective Murphy lit out of the front door nearly as fast as Pvt Ernesto Salazar. Callahan stood up and offered me his hand, which I took. The difference in our height made me laugh.

You are a tall woman.

I am. It’s unfortunate sometimes.

Only sometimes.

Yes.

Can I get your number?

You have it? Didn’t you ask earlier.

No, that was your friend. 

I provided Detective Callahan my number and slowly closed the door as I watch Detective Handsome Big Bulge walk away.

After I locked the door, I swooned, thinking of Callahan, then fell somber when I thought about dead Tony.

I kept most of my details to myself. The cops didn’t need any help from me. Tony sold drugs, pure, uncut cocaine. He kept a very low profile, no one in the complex knew, except for me. And Tony provided what he called, samples, to me at no charge. When I had the urge. The previous night he provided three glassine button bags stuffed full of samples, something to start the engine before hitting the clubs in Hillcrest. I gave Tony the best blowjob of his life and that would be the last time I saw him. By the time Pvt Ernesto Salazar rolled up on me I had burned through most of the coke and fell into a mood of depravity, much to Salazar’s enjoyment. 

Tony had enemies for sure, but I never thought they’d kill him. The cartel that supported his trade protected him. If someone took him out, there would be a price to pay. Unsanctioned hits were frowned upon by Tony’s keepers. Whoever pulled the trigger on Tony, probably had been given his own bullet. Detective Murphy and sweet, sweet 8-inch Barrel Callahan would make no arrest.

***

When I heard the toilet flush, I opened my eyes and smiled. Detective “Confirmed 8-inch Barrel” Callahan padded naked back to my bed and crawled in. He leaned across my body and kissed me. His hand swept under the blanket and cupped my right breast.

They are perfect.

Thank you. Money well spent.

He kissed me again, mouth open, tongue darting, but my mood had not met up with his. I pulled away.

How’s the investigation going?

About your neighbor?

Yeah, Tony.

Closed.

Oh. It’s only been a week. I mean cops on TV solve a murder in an hour, so a week feels like forever.

We don’t close as many as you might think.

For real.

I spun off the bed and padded naked across the wood floor to the bathroom and sat on the toilet. I purposely left the door wide open to be nasty, and peed. Unlike Detective Callahan I washed my hands then pulled on my floor-length silk kimono.

So, we found another body a day after Tony. We think he’s the perp.

Really?

Yeah. The gun he had matched to the gun used on Tony.

Crazy.

I got back into bed and snuggled into sexy detective.

Should we go to breakfast, Callahan asked.

Oh my God yes. A breakfast date? I need to call my mother.

What?

Nothing, honey. Get your ass dressed before you change your mind.

Ronan Barbour

late at night

people have stopped 
answering their phones 
people have stopped 
leaving their voices 
in greeting 
or goodbye 

so I knock on windows 
late at night 

long and loud enough 
to awaken  
the possibility
of an inhumane monster
on the other side

long and loud enough
to get some of them 
praying 
for that
which they 
give:
an empty footpath 
under the cold glow 
of the street lamp

the image 
they have etched
in another’s 
heart 
late at night

J.J. Campbell

nothing but pain

he told me beautiful women
bring nothing but pain

i was too young at the time
to know what he was talking 
about

but now, i do understand

heartache

alimony

a fucking rolodex of what 
could have been

yet, the whole thing about 
pain is some of us need it

crave it

even think we deserve it

so, hello to all the beautiful 
women

try me

Taryn Allan

Suicide Without Commitment

If someone sells synthetic highs
Does that make them a spice rack?

He claims he doesn’t sell such things, of course
Just suicide without commitment
Oblivion in instalments 

He seems to do alright

The sky is moving further away
Though few seem to notice
This receding firmament

Like the ring of pale light haloing a black hole
We’re happier with the dark
Than with the ever-fading light

Mike Zone

Boner Skin

Looking into the rot of the unseen muse wondering about a rosy fingered dawn slashing across moonscape illumination against the velvet atmosphere

an unceasing cycle of relentless winds will not blow away skeletal remains of our aborted futures fallen

I like the kind of sex you can’t get at k-mart anymore…

blue light special going off

in the fitting room

raw dogging and slapping some temporary meat vessel in the nose with a rotating wiener dunked in ketchup

they say we’re crazy but I just don’t know anymore when they’re the ones who made all this

dead space

inner dream time

our only escape

maybe it isn’t so much boner skin with our lusts bursting through paper bag repression as much as it is boned skin

bones

poking out the flesh

leaping skeletons that just can’t quite get free

the bells toll ptsd tinnitus

you can only stand to hear so much and listening can sometimes be a pure act of sadism

or maybe my downtrodden being really is just a colossal boner unfurling its skin to penetrate the world

impregnating with all the wrong reasons in this season of madness in unforsaken bliss

why try anymore when it’s all over

playing home movies

in my mind

more like

suspense driven horror

minus the the thrills

pumped with the mundane

ever sickening pallets

natural light hitting pastels and eggshell whites

plastic totes

with all my belongings

eventually my military duffel

eating out of garbage cans

sleeping under overpasses

ruminating over confessions of an unlived life

what keeps me sleepless at night

holding my dick

dating a series of sociopaths

no sex, no love, no affection

maybe once in a while a display of allusive kindness teasing me with what we shared before which never was there in the first place causing more than one of us to starve for more

something happened once

or rather many things

at once

sometimes

more

piled on high like a filipino box-spring hog…the way the trucker in the pink crop top and white cowboy hat described his wife 

who wanted me to see the back of his trailer at the bookstore I worked at over a decade ago

pornographic machinations in a foreign land

you can just grab a woman in a bar with a fistful of dollars and have one

are the outlets the same for filming there like they are here?

I just write scripts

So you set the mood?

deep inside

I know

I could

turn it off

but turning it back on would be a problem ‘cause it gets harder to get back towards a path of compassion

nah…

I’ll just take the verbal thrashings

the economic torture

the emotional beatings

and be on my way with a condition red soul

slipping a sense of subtle sabotage

when I can

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Jerk Off into a Cup and You Are Halfway There 

Making a baby is easy!  Jerk off into a cup and you are halfway there.  
And they give you aids, not the disease, but help.  So many bloody aid workers 
around you get thinking that your life might be one big disaster.  And Felice knew 
she should have called in sick today.  Sat up in bed thinking about it for many hours.  
But here she was, working reception at the sperm bank when this man in a faded 
denim jean jacket walked in.  Are you here to make a deposit? Felice asked the man.  
A withdrawal, the man said.  At first, Felice thought he was trying to rob the place.  
I’d like to speak to the bank manager! the man said excitedly.  It wasn’t long before 
the boys in blue showed up.  Is there a problem here?  Jesus boys, the shield has such 
a lousy pension plan that you have to come down here and make a deposit 
for a few extra bucks?  The few men sitting in the lobby area got up and left.  
Now we can be alone, that is how babies are made, the man said.  The boys in blue 
could try to cuff him, but he wouldn’t make it easy.  Balling up his fists, 
stacks of magazine rolled themselves like a personal thievery. The corporate art on 
the wall grew wet with excitement.  It was time to make a baby.

Karlo Sevilla

What I Said Upon Arrival in the USA

I still believe in Emma Lazarus,
and her poem, “The New Colossus.”
So when I reach the land-of-liberty,
I’ll embrace the first stranger I see.

And I’ve long stopped reading the news;
reports of strife I couldn’t take anymore.
The plane’s landing and the tarmac’s in view;
soon I’ll embrace a stranger and maybe more.

Now upon this land where I wasn’t born, 
I utter just to start a conversation,
“I believe in harmonious race relations.”
The stranger sighed, “You watch too much porn.”