Alex M. Frankel left Spain in the 1990s to settle in Southern California. In addition to poetry, he writes plays and nonfiction. During his youth he mostly wrote short stories, many of which were eventually published in little magazines. After a long delay, his (perhaps only?) short story collection, Flame at Door and Raisin, has come out. Kirkus has praised it: "Powerfully haunting tales of love, betrayal, and heartbreak in the Europe of decades past." It can be purchased on Amazon here:
Flame at Door and Raisin
From "Fog Music, 1981"
It was foggy. The fog had come in June and it wouldn’t burn off now until September. It would stay, and the foghorns would moan; the birds would chirp until dark. A day would not be divided into different colors; the sun didn’t rise or set. There was only black night and gray day and the chirping of the birds and in the distance gunfire from the rifle range on the other side of Lake Merced. It was a predictable, unchanging world enclosed in a white dome, and every day would bring the same thing: cold off the Pacific, the rustling of leaves, the scent of eucalyptus trees, the muffled sounds of traffic and, occasionally, the screeching of brakes from cars that had taken a sharp turn too fast.
It was foggy. The fog had come in June and it wouldn’t burn off now until September. It would stay, and the foghorns would moan; the birds would chirp until dark. A day would not be divided into different colors; the sun didn’t rise or set. There was only black night and gray day and the chirping of the birds and in the distance gunfire from the rifle range on the other side of Lake Merced. It was a predictable, unchanging world enclosed in a white dome, and every day would bring the same thing: cold off the Pacific, the rustling of leaves, the scent of eucalyptus trees, the muffled sounds of traffic and, occasionally, the screeching of brakes from cars that had taken a sharp turn too fast.
© 2022
Alex M. Frankel
Alex M. Frankel was a Featured Poet at the September 2022 Second Sunday Poetry Series
Alex M. Frankel was a Featured Poet at the September 2022 Second Sunday Poetry Series