Tag: Drake Scott

A somewhat cartoony illustration of two boys playing watermelon baseball - in the foreground, a skinny sunburned boy in overalls is throwing a watermelon at the second boy, who is swinging hard with a baseball bat. Both are splattered with yellow watermelon juice and broken pieces lie on the ground. a long path fades to the background where a house sits on a hill. By Drake Scott.

“Aunt Dottie I Didn’t Do It” * Short Story * David P. Stewart

aromatica poetica April 14, 2021

The following story about watermelon baseball and other dangerously fun childhood activities comes from Cornbread and Lace: The Privileges of a Mississippi Farmboy, which was written by an author with both feet firmly planted in Mississippi. In David’s thought-provoking manuscript, the anguish of racism, classism, bigotry, patriarchy, war, segregation, and revisionist history are mixed with vivid stories about winged snakes, hot donuts, an old farting mule name Kate, and dinner on the ground. Thought-provoking wisdom from a loving grandmother and an …

A pepperoni pizza cooking in a flaming brick oven stands in the foreground while a wall with flames behind it, a watchtower, hanging man, and wiener dog bleakly decorate the background. By Drake Scott for a Waleed Ahmad short story “Pleasure Pizza.”

“Pleasure Pizza” * Fiction * Waleed Ahmad

aromatica poetica July 21, 2020

It was a blistering day. The day would be hotter if it weren’t for the smog in the air softening the harsh desert sun. A cloud of ashes and smoke had seeped in and settled like a blanket over Las Cruces since the border clashes began. And with the smoke came the smell. People called it El Olor. A vaguely fetid odor that permeated everything. People had learned to live with it, shoved it to the back of their minds. …