ghows_gallery_ei-TX-200728959-8238880b-1.jpg.webp

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→

CONTACT

My Own Private Ulysses: Joycespearean Sonnet 76

Robert Roman

20 hours ago

1 min read

Joycespearean Sonnet 76

Why is the state of my verse plump with pride,

That old original sin of the fiend?

Why do I place my work so far outside,

Where love is lost and I lie unredeemed?

Why choose to live without the books of life,

And run away from your divine domain.

When I was born, within me stirred a strife,

They knew I was blessed with the mark of Cain.

And just in case you look but still can’t tell,

I don’t adore this Heaven that you host.

My place is not your pages, it’s your Hell.

My banishment is what I love the most.

James Joyce was shunned by this same choosy choir,

So, I’ll run The Robert Roman Empire.

1 Comment

Thomas Cleary

17 hours ago

I definitely enjoy your choice of words to end on in each line - pride and outside, tell and Hell, and especially choir and Empire. The theme is also quite unique and your take on it is superb, in particular “when I was born within me stirred a strife”, suggesting that in some cases evil isn’t learned so much as it’s innate.