Map Literary: A Journal of Contemporary Writing and Art
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  • Poetry
    • Benjamin Paloff Poetry
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  • Fiction
    • Rich Ives, "Insect People"
    • Christopher Linforth, "Zia"
    • Marlene Olin, "Wanna Ride?"
    • Jenessa Abrams, "You Never Wish That Upon Anyone"
    • Rebecca Berg, "My Father's Daughter"
    • Kevin Sterne, "Wisconsin's American Zoo (WAZOO) Invites You to Pet the Meese"
    • Eros Livieratos, "On Feeling"
    • James William Gardner, "Lowcountry Boil"
    • Guy Biederman, "Sociale"
    • Sean Trolinder, "MLA Citation Gone Wild"
    • Rebecca Hannigan, "Little"
    • Halsted M. Bernard, "Your Hands"
    • Justin Meckes, "The Gash"
    • Reb Livingston, from "Bombyonder"
    • Craig Foltz, "Without Stigma"
    • On Experimental Fiction
  • Nonfiction
    • W.F. Lantry, "The Strange Beauty of the Unfamiliar"
    • Michael Roloff, "Accretion"
    • Andrew Sunshine, "John Hancock's John Hancock"
    • Jay Merill "Cherry Red"
    • JM Farkas, "First Mindedness, Second Language"
    • Elizabeth Levine, "Gay Geography"
    • John Bliss, "Keep the Change"
    • Miranda Royse, "Disgusting Woman"
    • Elena Botts, "Ode to Oceans"
    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
    • Luc Sante, "Flesh and Bone"
    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
    • Lori Hawks, "The Fix"
  • Art
    • Edward Supranowicz
    • Mario Loprete
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    • Keith Moul
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    • Billy Cancel
    • The Scientist
    • Tim J. Myers
    • Derek Owens
    • Leonel Piraino
    • Matthew Rose
    • Jacob Spriggs
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    • Kristin Allmer
    • Limor Sadot
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    • Dahlia Elsayed
    • Yuji Hiratsuka, "Beet Meets Meat"
    • Kasey Ramirez, "Edifice"
  • Archives
    • 2018 >
      • Poetry 2018 >
        • Carlos Hiraldo
        • Martin Ott
        • Karyn Anne Petracca
        • Donald Illich
        • James Reidel
        • Dennis Hinrichsen
      • Fiction 2018 >
        • Rebecca Pyle, "Winter Solstice"
        • Martin Rutley, "Job Offer on Seventh Heaven"
        • Matthew Baker, "Superhighway"
        • Matthew Serback, "How to Make a Boulder"
        • Pavle Radonic, "The Laboratory"
        • Arkor Kolubah, "A Touch of Comfort"
      • Nonfiction 2018 >
        • Scott Wordsman reviews Petter Lindgren
        • Alexander Clark, "Postdiluvian"
    • 2017 >
      • Fiction 2017 >
        • Kathryn Holzman, "Eating Meat"
        • Kaitlyn Burd, "Nature with You in It"
        • Katie Young Foster, "Promotion"
        • William Cordeiro, "Selections from Whispering Gallery"
        • Alexandra Renwick, "The Life of an Artifact in Duodecadal Glances"
        • Lizzi Wolf, "My Brother's Therapist"
      • Poetry 2017 >
        • Keith Mark Gaboury
        • Mark Decarteret
        • Douglas Piccinnini
        • Matthew McBride
        • Jim Daniels
        • Sally Ashton
        • Raymond Farr
      • Nonfiction 2017 >
        • Charlie Moses, "Dear Friend"
        • Pamela Woolford, "This Is What Happened"
        • Jennifer Martelli, "Phobiacompendia"
    • 2016 >
      • Fiction 2016 >
        • Loie Merritt, "The Edge of the Sea is a Strange and Beautiful Place"
        • Mitchell Grabois, "i"
        • Kelle Groom, "25 Reasons to Attend the Gala"
        • Mike Shepley, "Killing Symbols"
        • Jody Azzouni, "Owning Things"
        • Dan Gutstein, "Like Airplanes and Stars"
        • Kate Imbach, "Diamondland"
      • Poetry 2016 >
        • Jeff Alessandrelli
        • Daniel Coudriet
        • Peter Leight
        • John Wells
        • Jenna Cardinale
        • Isabelle Shepherd
        • Michael Robins
        • Will Walker
        • Bridget Sprouls
        • Allan Johnston
        • Hugh Behm-Steinberg
        • Caroline Knox
        • David Dodd Lee
        • John Deming
        • David McLoghlin
    • 2015 >
      • Poetry 2015 >
        • Adam Clay
        • Kyle Hemmings
        • Matthew Henriksen
        • Megan Kaminski
        • Emily Kendal Frey
        • Noelle Kocot
        • Katy Lederer
        • John Lowther
        • Nathaniel Sverloff
        • Franz Werfel -- James Reidel
      • Fiction 2015 >
        • Erin Bedford, "Riesenrad"
        • James Braziel, "Jick's Chevrolet"
        • James Braziel, "Vittate"
        • Adrian Class, "Or Flights"
        • Erica L. Kaufman, "It Buried Us"
        • Nolan Liebert, "Gravity of Hearts"
        • Heather Noland, "Cosmic Slump"
        • Tom Whalen, "In the Cathedral"
      • Nonfiction 2015 >
        • Rebecca Cook, "What the Hammer Said When the Hammer Hit the Girl"
        • Margot Kelley, "Companion Species"
    • Fall 2014 >
      • Poetry Fall 2014 >
        • Stephanie Anderson
        • John Buckley and Martin Ott
        • Vanessa Couto Johnson
        • John Estes
        • Anne Gorrick
        • Henry Israeli
        • Keegan Lester
        • John Loughlin
        • Douglas Luman
        • Danielle Mitchell
        • Alexandria Peary
        • Marcus Slease
        • Georg Trakl / James Reidel
      • Fiction Fall 2014 >
        • Matt Rowan, "Dog's Best Friend"
        • Kelli Anne Noftle, "Before She Was Olive"
        • Chris Okum, "Ratatat"
        • Jon Fried, "Cashing In"
        • Lisa C. Taylor, "Visible Wounds"
        • Sarah Kahn, "Break"
        • Rebekah Morton, "Big Sis"
      • Nonfiction Fall 2014 >
        • Stephen Benz, "Night Then Morning: Elko, Nevada"
        • Joseph C. Jiuliani, "Of Stealing and of Being Stolen"
        • Lindsay Chudzik, "Jailface"
        • Robert D. Vivian, "Just After Rain"
    • Spring 2014 >
      • Poetry Spring 2014 >
        • Simeon Berry
        • Molly Brodak
        • Wyn Cooper
        • Brian Foley
        • Tim Kahl
        • Caroline Knox
        • Rob MacDonald
        • Benjamin Paloff
      • Fiction Spring 2014 >
        • Gareth David Anderson, "Cupcake"
        • Halsted M. Bernard, "Your Hands"
        • Patrick Cole, "Pick-up Lines"
        • Joshua Graber, "This Fine Experience"
        • Lola Grace, "Natural Birth"
        • Robert E. Tanner, "Non-Disclosure Disagreement"
      • Art Spring 2014
    • 2012 & 2013
  • Pedagogy
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Kyle Hemmings

The Agony of Saint Cleo


Neighborhood girls loved his thick hands, hairy & double-knuckled. He entertained shark-women by making collapsible churches with his fingers. Nobody laughed or fainted. A divorced friend of his mother said "I could screw you like a hex-head." He failed at numbers or at keeping promises to God. He vented sexual frustrations by pissing in graveyards or becoming addicted to porno films with ex-child stars of the 90s. When his life flat-headed, he said God, the time has come. At the church where he dispensed penance along with free candy, he couldn't look any nun in the eye for fear they could tell he wasn't a virgin. He kept his vision shifted upwards but. He suffered nosebleeds & wet stains. It went unmentioned during confessions. There were rumors of a mid-western twister heading towards the core of his sanctuary. The proctor couldn't control his bladder. Red-faced altar boys patted down stiff cowlicks before kneeling with creaky joints. Satan-worship was espoused by a young schizophrenic nun with hair on her chin. The church collapsed. The tornado swept up old habits. Cleo's fingers were stiff but still good. They would rebuild.



The Calling of Saint Stanislaus


He was a thunderstruck kid who shredded kites & tight underwear but still believed he was meant for God. If he could walk out of himself, just a soul without a bone, would he have the same name or be as clueless as a body that could not be saved? One night, he dreamed he floated up. St. Peter descended half-way down and said, "Sorry, for the time being, no immigrants are allowed to cross the border. God is in a solipsist state of mind. With foul breath too." Stanislaus tumbled back to earth, woke up with a thud and a damaged hard-on. In his post-grad years, he met a woman with vertically-challenged inhibitions & elephantine lust-schemes. In a queen-size bed, he asked her "Is heaven an eternal orgasm?" She pressed his face to her breasts, size XXX, and whispered, "I think it's better if delight comes in discontinuous frequencies." Her heart-rhythms vibrated inside his head. Middle-aged & bored as an angel, he became a celibate so he could have an occasional fall. She neutered the dog. St. Peter continued to send him updates by e-mail.


 

The Life of St. Xi

As a child in false curls & falsetto-high skirts, she was club footed but showed no malice towards ducks or pregnant ponds. Between pre and post something, she became a homecoming queen, distressed from consecutive traumas. Subject & object were confused, mutilated. The substitute father was a pun. Mother couldn't conduct heat or was on eternal leave of absence in another room. Below a city, moons were down with gravity but whores couldn't get decent tips. In a Bowery sub-let of contagious lottery-losers, Xi still loved the birds but she forgot to take the pill. A one-weekend husband found her ethereal by night but too promiscuous for Teflon. She gave birth to a child who disowned her. Not even a bye-bye or a clone of a kiss. Xi tried religion but reverted to pleasure principle & blunt death-wish. The pharmacist sold her three purple pills and one red one to curb her tendency to lure men into Sodom & tailspin. In later years, she gave up the two-step & lived alone. She took up painting abstracts using grids & hard light. She flipped coins at the homeless. Nights of black coffee & remissions with strangers. Someone said Flappers were coming back in vogue, but with more of an edge. After being infected by a low dirty cloud in the shape of a man, she donated the soft of her finger pads to science.





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Kyle Hemmings lives and works in New Jersey. He has been published in Elimae, Smokelong Quarterly, This Zine Will Change Your Life, Blaze Vox, Matchbook, and elsewhere. He loves 50s Sci-Fi movies,  manga comics, and pre-punk garage bands of the 60s.

published by
The Department of English
College of Humanities & Social Sciences
The William Paterson University of New Jersey
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