AC Benus - Stories

various stories, and other pieces

Thirteen-year-old Simon sits face to face with Father Strathmore, but what has he done wrong... experimented with drugs, kissed a boy, or lied in Confession? The priest has a vested interest in finding out, and it is a deeply personal and troubling one.

A peregrination, an exploration, a journey of mind, heart and memory,

I recall some San Francisco places that mean the most to me.

Strolls; encounters; kisses through closed gates; lighted windows seen from below; rumpled bedsheets turning up men’s shirts . . . These are just a few of the images in August Stramm’s poetry collection titled “DU” (“THOU”).

What follows is a complete, fresh-look translation of the thirty-one poems of this set.

...some old entries I stumbled upon in the course of my research...

written from ages fourteen to nineteen

An online relationship turns real, but they only have five days to savor the sweetness of love in person.

From Stinson Beach to McLaren Park and The Castro, San Francisco guest stars in this erotic romance, and who knows – many things can happen in five days.

**this story contains graphic sexual situations**

Sometimes evil wears the garb of generosity and 'guidance,' and the young can sense this destructiveness around them. From ages ten to fourteen, Simon has his inherent goodness and resolve tested by the shady undercurrents within the small town where he is growing up. Will he come out on the other side of his adolescence as pure as he went into it? These five novellas will explore questions of faith and Simon's process of becoming a young man.

Translations of early German Expressionist poet Toni Schwabe. Along with Elsa Gidlow and Renée Vivien, her delicate-but-frank explorations of same-sex love established much of the territory fellow Lesbian poets celebrated vociferously in the latter part of the 20th century. As far as I know, this is the first substantial collection of the poet's work to be rendered in English.

All artwork posted with the poems are by noted Gay/Bi American artist Georgia O’Keeffe

…previously on Mojo, things got too hot to handle at the Flying Dutchman artist's compound in Long Beach. Kohl and Assauer set the 'divorce' aside because Assauer thinks he's being followed by the donkey cult folks. Kohl and his eighteen-year-old boyfriend, Gordon, agree to quit L.A. with him and make their way to an old customer of Assauer's…