Map Literary: A Journal of Contemporary Writing and Art
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    • On Experimental Fiction
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  • Nonfiction
    • Martha Wiseman, "Loose Ends"
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    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
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    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
  • Art
Picture

KEITH MARK GABOURY

Planet X Soap Opera​

Neighborhoods of rabbit ear 
TeeVees picked up an exobroadcast
shoveling pixels

into the living rooms
flanked by apron-clad glee. 

A Riverside wife went into
convulsions, a Newton priest  
performed an exorcism 

on his RCA, and a flat-earther 
swam into the Atlantic, 
seeking to breaststroke off the globe.
 
I dropped my jaw 
like a milk carton, dairy spilled  
before the plot points 

of exoskeleton females
dramatizing within the off-Nowhere theatrics.

At a scene’s wrap, the production 
cut to a commercial for extraterrestrial

body wash: a reptilian creature 
lathered himself while reading off cue cards. 

Suddenly, Walter Cronkite 
discontinued the disturbance, 
announcing technical difficulties 

to America wailing in hysteria.
Yes screams piped in 
through my Wichita window

as I fashioned my remote
into a projectile at my screen,

mouth cranked open
to our solar system’s data stream. 
Copyright © Dec 2017 Map Literary and Keith Gaboury

Picture
Keith Mark Gaboury earned his M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College. His poems have appeared in such literary journals as Barely South Review, New Millennium Writings, and Crab Fat Literary Magazine. He is an early childhood educator and poet in San Francisco, California. 


published by
The Department of English
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
The William Paterson University of New Jersey
Copyright © 2012-2022 Map Literary
Map Literary

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  • About
    • Masthead
    • Submissions
    • Rachel Wetzsteon Chapbook Award
    • NJ High School Writing Contest
    • In Print
    • Subscribe
    • Links
    • Internship Opportunity
    • WPU MFA
  • Poetry
    • Richard Ryal
    • Sherwood Anderson
    • Mark DeCarteret
    • Dennis Hinrichsen Poetry
    • Daniel Biegelson
    • Natan Last
    • Jim Daniels Poetry
    • Michael Chang
    • D E Steward
    • Benjamin Paloff Poetry
    • David Dodd Lee
    • Isabelle Doyle
    • Kathleen Heil
    • Leonard Kress
    • Lauren Tess
    • Cesca Janece Waterfield
    • Billy Cancel Poetry
    • Scott Minar
    • Greg Glazner
    • Bruce McRae
    • Maureen Thorson
  • Fiction
    • On Experimental Fiction
    • Mark Cassidy, "How I Met My Wife"
    • Emily Trachtenberg, "Plum"
    • Hector Donovan-Gonzalez
    • Christopher Linforth, "Zia"
    • Jenessa Abrams, "You Never Wish That Upon Anyone"
    • Eros Livieratos, "On Feeling"
    • Halsted M. Bernard, "Your Hands"
    • Justin Meckes, "The Gash"
    • Reb Livingston, from "Bombyonder"
    • Craig Foltz, "Without Stigma"
  • Nonfiction
    • Martha Wiseman, "Loose Ends"
    • Jan Jolly, "Through My Father's Glasses"
    • Kristina Moriconi, "Still Looking"
    • Wm. Anthony Connolly, "IGY"
    • Cal Freeman, "Loosestrife"
    • W.F. Lantry, "The Strange Beauty of the Unfamiliar"
    • Michael Roloff, "Accretion"
    • Andrew Sunshine, "John Hancock's John Hancock"
    • 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"
  • Art