Exterminating Angel Press

Creative Solutions for Practical Idealists.

EAP: The Magazine Archive

Rough Astronomy.

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by Chris Farago.

What rough astronomy we build for ourselves on these cloudy nights!
There is a sky behind that wall;
We have seen it, let it mingle in our minds
With the hyacinth, the honeysuckle,
“Take Five” tapped out on Orion’s belt.
Everything together; the universe, together;
The universe, ours for the taking,
All those damn stars for the taking,
If we can just get over that wall.

We map the points, the weapons,
The low-flying birds,
The famous men of no importance.
They belonged to us; they will again.

What rough astronomy binds us to those we know so well!
We long to keep this hoary peace within us,
To stop it from sublimating away:
We serve no masters but the stars.

The Great Maestro Takes on Gage.

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by Jim Meirose. So. You want to learn. To play. Piano Play. Learn to. Play. Piano play no. Learn. To play piano play. No. Learn to play. Play what? Piano play. No. But. Learn to play piano for people play for.  No. Learn to. No. Learn to play. Play what? No just play. Wrong answer. […]

Mousetraps.

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by Bruce Thompson. My friend and mentor R. B. Angell—Brad to those of us who knew him—always kept a mousetrap beside his computer. It was primed and ready to snap at any moment. “Do you have a problem with mice?” I asked him on one of my visits to his house. “No,” he replied, a […]

Moon, Revisited.

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by Chris Farago. Moon, you are different and indifferent; I lay out my thesis before attempting to land So as not to catch you unawares. If I set foot on your alien fields, Moon, would you give me so much as a tremor? Could I shift your gravity? I speak the way I do because […]

On That Short City Walk.

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by John Grey. out walking, plagued by two fears that the next one who passes me will jag my eyes out with long sharp claws or that a life-size doll made of white steel will leap out of the beauty shop the tension is so atom-splitting I hold together by imagining I’m pushing a body […]

The Female Touch in Iranian Film.

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by Brian Griffith. For some reason Iran has an unusually large number of great female film makers, such as Rakhshan Banietemad, Susan Taslimi, or Ziba Mir-Hosseini. Shirin Neshat, who is best known for her Silver Lion award-winning movieWomen Without Men (2009), tried to explain why this is true, mentioning the sense of constriction, the driven […]

Second Thoughts.

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by Charles Holdefer. When the doorbell rang, Wayne stopped buffing and polishing and went to answer. “Oh, it’s you.” “I believe you know why I’m here.” “Are you sure it’s necessary?” “Honey, who is it?” Courtney called from the kitchen. Wayne yelled over his shoulder. “It’s Nancy Pelosi. She’s come to take our guns.” He […]

Moon.

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by Chris Farago. Moon, I painted you twenty times last week, Praising your inconstancy with my brush and my oils. You are not like that liar Sun, Who wears the same face daily, Hiding behind her heat. Your silent aria inhabits me with a touch, Moon, That melody opening my veins, Showing my eyes how […]

Door.

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by Marissa Bell Toffoli. On the other side, the streets are cobblestone. The walls of the town are blue and white. Everywhere the eye finds royal, electric, cobalt, aqua, periwinkle, turquoise, sapphire, midnight, baby, ice, and sky. Which way is up? There’s a weight to the air. Like walking through a Picasso. Outside, someone waits. […]

Rebel, Rebel.

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by Tod Davies. 1. I used to have this nightmare. Four walls in the commissary—the walls would start closing in on me. Shoutingfrom the Wall Ads™, much louder than the nice noises they make in real life. The door out, both the doors out, just gone. And I can’t breathe. I’d wake up in the […]