“Asher Lev, there are two ways of painting the world. In the whole history of art, there are only these two ways. One is the way of Greece and Africa, which sees the…

Speculative Friction By Claire Bateman “. . . there used to be something between units of information that was not itself information this substance was so exquisite so fine-spun that we were altogether…

Speculative Friction “Then there were the couples that had been kept forcibly apart until that point, though they had yearned for one another across unsurpassable distances long or short, such as the Rockies…

Speculative Friction “Do not mistake actual life for reading. Inside your brain, there is no homunculus waxing lyric on the events of your day, so you must quit feeding him truffles, and shoo…

“So they all went to get their digging spoons, and set to work, the eldest with his sterling silver baby spoon from very long ago; the middle child with her sea-shell-shaped sugar spoon;…

Speculative Friction By Claire Bateman     Reliable   Outside their trailers in dense evening light, the fed men gather to jack and block their cars’ known bodies.   They speak a strict…

Speculative Friction By Claire Bateman “A Pocket Introduction to Our Universe” What does our universe most like to do? To contort without any warning into nothing but corners, an awkward though not unbeautiful…

Speculative Friction by Claire Bateman “Another Poem On Blue”  Can I help it that I keep writing the same poem over & over again? No more than I can help being reborn into…

Speculative Friction by Claire Bateman Thinking East Why am I so reluctant to go home? My friend Mary has expressed it perfectly: There is a dearth of sky in Greenville. And my friend…

Speculative Friction Selection from “Disorientations,” a Travel Essay by Claire Bateman Excerpt from the section, “Castings Off” “1. All throughout this trip, I experience internal pressure from the desire to leave my car…