Anti-Heroin Chic

08/12/2026

"Them who've lost everything
are not dazzled
by you who've gained it all...

And all the harm I've ever done
alas it was but only to me"

Judith Jackson CC The Degenerate Nation Mourns for Mark Lanegan (1964-2022) Woody Guthrie's bastard grandson Vagabond * Troubadour ...

08/11/2026

"How can a mouth describe its own tongue?
How can a body recoil at its own pulse, all boil
and pump? You may choose to hunt me, corner me,
fell me like a redwood, but after, there will be
sadness, guilt, an unimaginable loss."

Anders Pearson CC A Monster Describes Itself I see pinpoints of red, a tunnel I can’t crawl, a cave no canary could thread. I have forgotten the sound of my voice but am drawn to the...

08/10/2026

“Everybody on the planet, if looked at closely enough, is worthy of being loved with the most love that you could ever give.” - Philip Seymour Hoffman

And if art is the lens through which everything, including our love, becomes enlarged, then how can we help but pour our hearts into one another.

Life's a struggle. But that we don't struggle alone. That's what the chisel uncovers in the stone.

Our submissions are open for another two weeks. Share your struggle with us.

https://heroinchic.weebly.com

08/10/2026

"We ask that you compost
all intergenerational trauma...

Some folks dump and dash. Most
are in no rush to go home.

We bum ci******es
and discuss attachment-styles
like horoscopes."

Joseph Gage CC At the Trauma Dump Oh yes, we smoke here and if your childhood trauma and abandonment issues are already co-mingled don’t worry about separating them. Some wear gloves while ...

08/09/2026

"What can we do but watch our parents age
And all their anger deflate
Like a bike tire
Rolled out from the backyard barn
To hook up to a machine that breathes"

Don O'Brien CC Grand Funk Railroad Covers the Locomotion My father used to sit on his wooden stool Show us how he could blow smoke rings with his cigar I remain fascinated by this smoker’s...

08/08/2026

"I am too tired to sugarcoat loss,
change the vernacular of grief
from fangs to flowers...

We are not all capable after
all. Sometimes we just need
to give up, uncoil
in the afternoon sun, scatter
our failures in the massage of air."

Doug Kerr CC Vigilance I try to imagine the lullaby, the way longing makes a sound before it learns words. My hands practice a softness I have not yet needed, a gentleness waiting. But the...

08/07/2026

"Brakes
squeal—light rail,
city bus, ocean waves of traffic.
Someone’s head rests on a backpack, naps
beneath blanket beside dumpster.

I
always do
a double take to see if it’s one
of my kids, even though Adam
died. Still, I look, sigh, then say, bless."

Judith Jackson CC Walking across the Walgreens parking lot in downtown Phoenix “If you stop pampering (feeding) her, maybe she’ll change her ways.” ...

08/06/2026

"Outside the cracked back door
of my grandmother’s shed, my father

hunches over dusk’s late light
showered with sugar cane.

He churns Big Red pop against rock salt
in the turquoise ice cream maker,

resting against his sweaty knees."

Eugene Kim CC J'entends le Tonnerre / I Hear the Thunder Outside the cracked back door of my grandmother’s shed, my father hunches over dusk’s late light showered with sugar cane. He...

08/05/2026

"Through the dark and stormy weather, we'll make our way together." Our rusted and wobbly doors are open for submissions until 8/26. What gets you through, friends? https://heroinchic.weebly.com

08/05/2026

"The psych ward was never meant to be home.
But nurses have a way of acting like mothers,
and I didn’t have one.

Their warm, soap-scented hands gave me
a stick of gum to chew or tuck into my back pocket,
something to savor before bed."

Buffy May CC My Psych History Is Longer Than a Child’s List to Santa Strength is strange like that. It takes the shape of intake forms, clipboards, charts, ticking clocks, groups of hard red...