Alex Shapiro

Alex Shapiro is a former nonfiction editor of Identity Theory.

Butternut Squash

A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring. -Alexander Pope, “Essay on Criticism” Looking at simple things in a cosmic way is the work of a poet. Accordingly, Thaddeus Edelstein made a point of keeping his eyes open. He wouldn’t want to miss the world in a grain …

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Nome Sane

Uncle Shelby, Sippy Salvatore, Silent Edgar, Ramos the Bull God, Alejandro the Hammer, Peter the Wolf, The Ghost of Thom Jones, names by which my ilk are known or have been known, all. Name by which I go when I go at night from this place in the hills with my hollow prayer book in …

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Giuseppe the Architect

The spark is a good dog. Giuseppe sucks! It is well trained. It heels. Architects call electricians sparkies, They do what Giuseppe tells them! The wall cannot be broken by a fist. Giuseppe sucks! It is a solid thing. It contains. Architects call bricklayers brickies. They do what Giuseppe tells them! The shower has good …

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In the Rut

At six a.m., I learned the sun god had traded his golden chariot for a pale green corduroy chair. It was a lazy kind of light that coated the mountain. A light that implied comfort and “just another day,” rather than grandeur and the chokecherries swallowed the indignity. The fir tree, cold and thirsty, narrowed …

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Angel’s Left

1 "Doggy, dear," says Kari Moore, "fetch mommy up another ocean." "Make it two," says Deb Trigaboff. "Three," says Marguerite Mauvoisin. "Five," says Tristram le Brun, the wickedest of the wicked wives club. Kari has grounded her stepson Doug—aka Dougie, then Doggy, Mutt and Biatch and variables thereof and beyond as the day grinds on—on …

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