Literary Work

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Corner Store Prophet J.B. STONE J.B. Stone is a neurodivergent performance poet, reviewer, and writer from Brooklyn, now residing in Buffalo. He is the author of two chapbooks, A Place Between Expired Dreams And Renewed Nightmares (Ghost City Press 2018) and forthcoming, Fireflies & Hand Grenades (Stasia Press 2019). You can check out more of his work at jaredbenjaminstone.com.

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NEW READER MAGAZINE

This past summer afternoon, Ocean Avenue was drenched in hot, sticky concrete molasses. It was like living inside the confines of a cliché street poem. One filled with overdone metaphors on heat and the madness of being stuck in the same place for years. However, like many neighborhoods in the heart of Brooklyn, there was still so much life with a stewed pot of personality to match. On one corner, a lively

Haitian fruit vendor exchanges words with an old Russian man, dressed in an olive green sweater vest. At a red light, two cab drivers yell across the lanes at each other. From out a third story window, an older Sicilian woman is shouting at a young Pakistani grad student. To the untrained eye, these look like confrontations rather than conversations. However, to the accustomed mind, the dialogue isn’t