Amuse-Bouche
Our Amuse-Bouche series offers little bites once a month to keep you satiated between issues. Dig into a smorgasbord of genres every third Friday of the month!
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A literary and art journal
from the MFA community at
Antioch University Los Angeles.
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Spotlight: Breakup
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2016 / Patrice GopoIn Charlotte, where winter brings no guarantee of snow, small children press their palms together, close their eyes so tight they see waves of color, and plead with God to unzip heaven…
Spotlight: Paintings
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / by Diane Williams“Coming from an ethnic background and living in a diverse city like Los Angeles, my work reflects my identity as an Asian American…”
Spotlight: Tequila / Jesus in a Nighttime City / Clock Maker / Life Is-Transition
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Michael JohnsonSingle life is-tequila with lime, / shots of travelers, jacks, diamonds, and then spades, / holding back aces- / mocking jokers / paraplegic aged tumblers of the night trip.…
Spotlight: I want to die the way my dog sleeps / In Gratitude of the Strange Phenomenon of Reynaud’s / It doesn’t spell disaster
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Andrea Witzke SlotI want to die the way my dog sleeps / a tiny, take-up-no-room-curl. / I want to live like him, too, / rising twice or thrice a day, / a lift up from a stomach, / a grin to an n, / a head-to-tail unfurl…
Spotlight: Summercamp Sirens / Days Like This / Rattlesnake
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Rena RossnerWhen cities are burning / and children sleep in your bed / you can’t measure suffering / like sugar, one tablespoon / at a time…
Spotlight: Dragonfall
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Darren ToddI lost my virginity while the dragon fell. When the enormous canvas beast faltered, people flocked beneath it. Maybe they hoped their attention would encourage it to stay aloft in the dead air, like zealots of a dying god refusing to believe its power could ever wane….
Spotlight: PAST PERFECT: Mixed Media Quilts
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Jeana Eve Klein“I trespass in abandoned houses. I spy on the people who once lived inside, watching them through the telescope of time…”
Spotlight: Erasures (NASA Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription)
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Jenni B. BakerThe following three found poems are from the collection Roger That […]
Spotlight: The Koreans / Terminal 3 Farewell / In the Eel Grass
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Tim TomlinsonIn the downpour / a pair of cobras slithers / into the resort / and the restaurant empties / of foreigners. / The boy sets his tray of drinks / on a table and runs for the itak / he isn’t supposed to keep / in his locker, but does…
Spotlight: This Is How I Say Goodbye
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Heather MingusI haven’t been to the place where my father isn’t buried, only ashes and the idea of him. I haven’t said my goodbyes over the patch of grass where his body doesn’t lay….
Spotlight: Seasonal / Lunchtime in Atlantic City / Postscript
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Anuradha BhowmikHindu Santa stashes / boxes of Just for Men / under the bathroom / sink, bare scalp painted / black with faded tooth / brush bristles. Barbasol…
Spotlight: Mascot
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Jessica LundI construct intimate artworks that investigate the gross romance between person and location…
Spotlight: A Week in the Back Bay
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Kevin CaseyWe wandered your city / for five days, hemmed within / those same cobbled creases, / tucked between brownstones- / mordant lines grown soft / in the damp October night…
Spotlight: TOUR OF A HOLLYWOOD DEATH / THE FALLEN BODY / THIS VOLUPTUOUS POEM
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Laurie BartonHere’s the peach bathroom / that gave her new ways / to look taller—
Spotlight: The Flat World
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Veronica CeciThere are two worlds those with the privilege of portable technology inhabit…
Spotlight: Stumbling: Cut Short
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Jim RossOur eyes tripped over a four-by-four inch bronze memorial embedded in a sidewalk in Cologne, Germany…
Spotlight: Birds Missing From Sky
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Rob CookToday you follow the holes / birds clawed into the sky…
Spotlight: Shaving Above the Knees
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / L.C. StairThere was a pecan tree that dropped nuts across the crabgrass that surrounded her parents’ bungalow-style home. She introduced me to her rat-dog and its seven grown puppies that surrounded me, yapping away my patience, each of them dirty and unclaimed…
Spotlight: Lena and the Bank of America
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Alice LoweLena. Just Lena. My mother didn’t have a middle name, which I thought smacked of parsimony—shortchanged at birth…
Spotlight: New Mexico
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Naomi Krupitsky WernhamIn my next life I will come back as a Wild Mountain Woman…
Spotlight: For Eric Garner, Who Lost Staten Island
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Rob CookInside the brain of a bank, / where the world is, / I sold my breath/ but then my breath was taken/ and sold back to me…
Spotlight: Some Thoughts About Why You Left / Sweet Tooth
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Kristy WebsterWe both tried to kill ourselves, you with / pills, me, with a razor and a bottle of wine…
Spotlight: Fabric of the Cosmos, & Other Paintings
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Gerardo GarduñoA collection of surreal ink drawings inspired by sacred geometry exploring the relationship between human perceptions and impossible worlds…
Spotlight: Selling Death / Bodies of Water
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2015 / Brett Elizabeth JenkinsEven on 5th avenue, it costs money to die. / Especially if you die in a Taco Bell drive-through / or in the kitchenware aisle of Macy’s; it costs / money to die even if you flop down dead / in your own flower garden…
Spotlight: Dreamscape & Meditations on an Altered State
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Barbara McGawIn a bed/ in an ink-wash of night sky/ a Chagall dreamer rises/ An omniscient moon/ hovers above the pines…
Spotlight: You Are a Terrible Home Surgeon / The Heart Attack / The Lemon Law
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Eric PaulWhile mowing the lawn, a small bird flew into my chest and stuck there. It’s America. I can’t afford health insurance…
Spotlight: Your Mouth is Full of Birds / Orchard / Penance
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Marci CalabrettaYou asked me once at dawn about forgiveness and I said
I didn’t think you had any need to be forgiven and you said
nothing…
Spotlight: It is leaving
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Courtney McDermottOn the first day there was stillness. For a moment nothing moved. The wind held its breath. The birds stopped in midflight—their wings pinned against the blurry space of sky.
Spotlight: Woman, Where Is Your Crown? / Self Portrait #1
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Carolyn EliasWoman, where is your crown? Why do you stand there dumb-founded? It does not abide in the swivel of your hips or the bouncing of your breasts!
Spotlight: Snow and Snow / For the Persians / Waiting With the Squirrels
/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2014 / Tim SuermondtIt keeps showing up like a complaint no one has answered for…