February 2012
15 posts
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The Patterns Issue
02.01.2012
For our February issue, the Ragbag Writers Alliance chose Patterns as our theme. This is a theme that at first I thought would lend itself best to visual work, but as the responses from our Alliance members began to come in, I saw how well it worked in writing.
Patterns, as it turns out, are everywhere. This magazine, for example, has its own set of patterns. It begins every...
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Eddie’s Change in Routine
by Meg O’Reilly Amandes Eddie Ferrari was sitting in a gold Honda Civic from the late 1980’s, hardly the vehicle his surname implied. The only Ferrari that Eddie owned took the form of a small enamel pin adorning his left lapel. Yellow background with the silhouette of a rearing stallion. A joke gift, originally, but all of the men in Eddie’s family wore these pins shaped like the emblem of a...
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Patterns: A Poem
by Christopher Carroll
Patterns in clothing bore me not
Stripes, paisley and polka dots
Stripes can be zebras and referees
Stripes can be jailbirds trying to flee
Paisley is magnified Petri dish
Weave on ties and socks, if you wish
Polka dots on Pulaski, Casimir
String Bikinis or Cashmere
Patterns on clothing bore me not
Much like bowties and Windsor knots
If only I shared the same...
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Truth to be a Liar
by Meredith Mele
I had never even heard of Latvia. When Jacob told me, making a map out of his palm, I asked, “Isn’t that just Russia?”
Later, he showed me on the globe.
I ran my fingers over the tiny mountain bumps. “It hugs right up against Russia, so I was mostly right.”
He kissed my forehead, wrapping his arms around me. “Just like you and me.”
That night, in bed, I imagined a tiny white...
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The Dumpling Heard Round the World
by Sarah Chang
(photo by Ben Chang)
One of the qualities that intrigues me most about food and cooking is its universal existence in our world. Because it is the form of fueling our species, it is a constant presence in our lives no matter where we are, what language we speak, or what we believe in. Despite our many differences—ecological, cultural or religious—we as a humanity...
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No Dice
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Maybe She Will Tell Herself
by Daniel Shvartsman
She sits at the playground table. Her head sinks into her left hand, elbow propped on the table. She watches as her son slides down the curved slide, then climbs up the ladder, crosses the bridge, crosses back, and skids down the shorter, straighter slide. He repeats the order exactly. She looks at her watch. It is 4:30. School was over more than an hour ago. The gray white...
January 2012
15 posts
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The Snow Issue
01.01.2012
Dear Readers,
Happy 2012! How do you feel? Older? Wiser? A little hungover? You’re not the only one.
This year, January not only marks the beginning of a new year, resolutions, and fresh starts, it also commemorates Ragbag Magazine’s ten-month anniversary. That’s ten issues of new work created by the Ragbag Writers Alliance, a group of which I am honored...
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Icy Road Conditions
by Nell Voss
February and the snow is hard and squeaks when crunched. It’s worse than nails on a chalkboard and it pierces my ears with every step. As it always does, Winter has long overstayed its welcome and now I’ll have to wait until the ground thaws to bury the body. It’s either that or rent some heavy-duty mechanical type thing from Home Depot.
“Yes,” I...
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Blanket of Snow
by Nia O’Reilly Amandes
(fiction)
Eleanor’s first mistake was thinking that the snow would make her harder to find. She had hoped for a blizzard, a powerful flurry of flakes that would instantaneously fill the deep footprints of a person in a hurry. Instead, the snow stopped just as she began to run. Deep into the first night, she stumbled on tracks she had never seen before. ...
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On Downy Flakes
by Meredith Mele
lovely, dark and deep we, each, watch passing time on downy flakes in my solitary wood, I count mine separate like single drops of water in a slanted pail the snows I passed alone away from home, beyond the endless lake where glassy crystals never swept the ground but, now, for us, under blankets, with porcelain mugs, safe from downtown’s grime, snow fills the lot below before...
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One Snowy Night
by Meg O’Reilly Amandes
(fiction) Grover arrived home to find yet another flyer from the new pizza place on his front porch. It was encrusted with ice and had little hope of being freed, unless the landlady dropped off salt any time soon, which seemed like too much to hope for. Snow and ice had created a dirty strata on the steps and porch, layered with dead leaves and street...
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Informer: Snow and the Whisteblower Protection Act
by Chris Carroll
Sometimes the greatest American patriots are Canadian, Eh? Eh, indeed, my friends. Eh, indeed. Born Darrin O’Brien and raised in the projects of Toronto, Ontario, our hero could never have anticipated his place among the Thomas Paines and Jeffersons. For when he burst into the collective consciousness, under the moniker Snow, no one tabbed his hit song Informer as a...
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Snow on the Swamp
by Daniel Shvartsman
‘Twas a New Orleans night, Monday ‘round dinnertime Smell of red beans and rice, laundry hung on the line But a strange, strong wind blew through the December air And Miss Genevieve Wright couldn’t help but feel scared “Well now, this time of year, shouldn’t be quite this cold, But the weather is getting crazy, or so I am told.” She turned back to her table, still not fully...
December 2011
15 posts
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The Radio Issue
12.01.2011
Hello again, dear friends of the Ragbag.
For our December issue, the Ragbag Writers Alliance chose Radio for our theme, a topic that is very near and dear to my heart. I’ve never had the most advanced musical technology at my fingertips, but to be honest, I haven’t really needed it. We have great radio in Chicago.
Don’t get me wrong, I use my iPod everyday, but...
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Mix Tape
by Meg O’Reilly Amandes Ethan dozed on the couch with his finger on the record button. He was waiting for a particular song to be played. In recent years, Ethan’s successes with women had been few and far between. He’d done all the things a twenty-something, post-quarter-life-crisis guy does to meet a girl. He’d done the meet-ups and the four o’clock bars. The set-ups with...
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We Have Issues →
Check out past issues of Ragbag Magazine in our archive.
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In Your Car
by Cory Miller
What’s best about the radio, you ask? I know it’s a little old, there are ads and your iPod probably has better music on it. So again, what’s best?
ROCKING OUT in your car.
ROCKING OUT has to be in caps because that’s how intense it is in your car. It’s not just idly singing along that’s so fun. It’s yelling, screaming, shoulder shaking ROCKING OUT.
Now, I’m a biker and don’t really...
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Knowing What I Know
by Meredith Mele
Redactions provided by your friendly Censor.
That morning, on the way to the interview, I wasn’t thinking so much about what I would say. I was thinking about Ted. He had just texted me asking if I had seen his iPod cord around the apartment. He couldn’t find it and he was getting behind on podcasts. Early that week, I had found the cord plugged into the...
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Dick Biondi Is Still On The Radio
by Nia O’Reilly Amandes
We’re famous internationally for Al Capone, Michael Jordan, and Ferris Bueller. We pronounce Mom and Dad “MAHM” and “DEE-ad.” Every Saint Patrick’s Day, we dye the river a deep Jello green. We are Chicago, and we are known for many things. One of them should be Dick Biondi.
I have been a radio-listener my whole life. Years...
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November 2011
15 posts
1 tag
The Old People Issue
11.01.11
For our November issue, the Alliance voted for Old People as our theme.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Hilarious! Or maybe, Sad! But you know what? The theme led to a number of interesting pieces of work that I felt never spent too much time making fun of the elderly or focusing on the connection between old age and death.
Is that good or bad? I’m not sure.
I am...
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On The Lam
A story in dramatic form
by Nell Voss
Nursing Home –Day
The apartment is badly disguised as a home. Pieces of hospital are poking through in the pink and beige plastic implements and institutional furniture. BEA, a smiling, white- haired old lady with stains on her pink Orlando, Florida sweatshirt stands over one of the two hospital beds folding a pile of laundry and humming quietly.
MARTY...
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Chew On This, Or Not
by Sarah Chang When the Ragbag team decided on the elderly for this month’s theme, I immediately was taken to a time last year when I was commissioned to make a variety of purees for my toothless grandma. At that time, I was immediately taken to three years before then when I had my wisdom teeth removed and couldn’t eat solid food. These were all very exciting and trying times for...