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Robert

Roman

Empire

RED BRICK ALLEY STORIES

The Killards Are Coming

Every damn day in Religion Class, Sister Anna Banana yapped about the Soviets revving up to start a nuclear war with the new president, Ronald Reagan. She said after the cities burned to Holy Hell, there’d be something called “nuclear winter” that would kill all...

Double-Strength Demon Dogs

Fantastic Freddie was the only altar boy from the Red Brick Alley. He was always consecrating Ritz Crackers and trying to make us eat them like communion wafers. He light-fingered incense from the sacristy, and he blessed water from Old Lady Tully’s spigot...

Laser Loop

I couldn’t see over the tall green school bus seat except when we hit a pothole and I bounced up in the air like a Pop-Tart jumping out of a toaster. Nobody at Saint Augie’s could believe I was allowed to go. My first school picnic ever. I was good from the day I handed in my pink...

The Boy Wonder

How the Hell did Jaggerbush get himself up there? He was clawing his way up into the open window above the Science class door like a real-life gargoyle. The blockhead of a wooden mallet stuck out of the back of his Toughskins where his butt crack was. He wore three...

Robert Roman grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, where he sold newspapers to cars from a concrete island. Read more→

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My Own Private Ulysses: The Ubiquity of Epiphany #1

Art by Vincent van Gogh Tarascon Stagecoach, 1888 “Remember your epiphanies written on green oval leaves, deeply deep, copies to be sent if you died to all the great libraries of the world, including Alexandria?” - Stephen Dedalus, June 16, 1904 Today's Ezraku : The Ubiquity of Epiphany #1 Van Gogh’s green diligence of isolation: Joyce’s sudden spiritual manifestation.

Jan 7

My Own Private Ulysses: On the Wall of a Museum #1

Art by Paul Cézanne Still Life with Cherries and Peaches, 1885-1887 "—Well? Stephen said. The problem is to get money. From whom? From the milkwoman or from him. It’s a toss up, I think. —I blow him out about you, Buck Mulligan said, and then you come along with your lousy leer and your gloomy jesuit jibes." - Ulysses, James Joyce Today's Ezraku : On the Wall of a Museum #1 Cézanne ’s canvas, impressions by daub and dab: Joyce’s pages, expressions by jibe and jab.

Jan 5

Robert Roman