Danse Macabre – March 2013

For something truly original and definitely a break from the normal online journal, take a look at Danse Macabre. Not only is the writing a break from the straight literary, but the images and the layout are as well. The style, as described by Editor Adam Henry Carrière, is “noir coloratura.” Enter this issue, “Terra,” and be greeted by a skeleton who is about to cut down a tree with an ax, be greeted with a type of march song played on the organ.

For something truly original and definitely a break from the normal online journal, take a look at Danse Macabre. Not only is the writing a break from the straight literary, but the images and the layout are as well. The style, as described by Editor Adam Henry Carrière, is “noir coloratura.” Enter this issue, “Terra,” and be greeted by a skeleton who is about to cut down a tree with an ax, be greeted with a type of march song played on the organ.

David Elliot’s “The Fallen Queue Jumper” is about Satan, or Lucifer as he prefers, and his last time seeing the canteen, for having slapped a certain powerful character. In Walter Brand’s “Hijacked,” the narrator, a cab driver, has a gun brought to his ribs by a man who gets into the car and demands him to just drive. Mehra Gharibian’s “Premonitions” is about Shahin’s need to break up with his abusive boyfriend, Sirus.

Samantha Memi’s “God Bless America” is an interesting commentary on America. It starts with Jed, a man who likes to kill animals but never people “because he was a Christian and went to church nearly every Sunday and prayed for America”—that is until he wants revenge on those who killed his girlfriend. This turns into a shooting spree of sorts; a lot of people die, including him—who as he dies says, “They wuz only exercisin’ their cahnstitutional raht to shoot people. We gotta support their rahts . . . God bless America.” After the blood bath, you’ll be surprised—or maybe you won’t—by the new law that the townspeople want to make.

David Massengill’s “Night Gardening” will have you suspecting your neighbors—if you don’t already. Tina, unhappy that a new tenant is a better gardener than her, seeks to find out Monique’s secret plant food. Tina is perhaps not happy that she snooped.

This issue also contains poetry, which is just as vivid and unique as the fiction. Take, for example, Walter Ruhlmann’s “Black and White Blood”:

“killing in the name of” made part of a black and white collection that yelled the rage against the machine

machine gun ex machina

For sixty bloody years the then victims of barbarians became vultures and carrions,

carnal carnivorous criminals, unexpectedly claiming clutters of land the carelessness of coward cowboys did not prevent from harm, from drama, tragedies and corruptions. Executions, excruciation, crucifixions and exterminations.

Plenty more poetry is in store. Dig around a little; you’ll be captivated by the unique aesthetic of the journal.
[www.dansemacabreonline.com]