Degrees of Mistake
He was an
elderly gentleman
in a
gray suit
wearing a
hat with a
feather in it
sitting parked
in one of
those hybrid
cars about
as big as
a shoe box
& when a
car full of
teenagers
cruised by
shouting obscenities
& making
lewd gestures
out their
rolled down
windows he
fired up
his engine &
gave pursuit.
They pulled over
after a
block or
so &
so did he
& when
three of
them got
out &
started back
toward him
he got out
too with a
sawed-off shotgun.
“What the
fuck do
you think
you’re going
to do
with that,
old man?”
one of them
said &
continued on
toward him,
not the
first mistake
he’d made
that day
but definitely
the biggest.
HCOLOM PRESS is the heir to Vagabond Press, which began as a main player in the Mimeo Revolution of the Sixties and continued publishing right into the jaws of the new millennium. HCOLOM PRESS embodies the spirit of Vagabond Press, retooled for the times we live in.
Hcolom is Moloch spelled backwards. Moloch is an Old Testament deity to which children were sacrificed, a practice society still engages in with increased enthusiasm. Consumerism is the new Moloch, manifesting itself like cancer in war, politics, the arts and religion, in every nook and cranny of human endeavor, draining the intrinsic beauty out of life and mutilating the innocence and magic of childhood with its commercial meat hook. HCOLOM PRESS intends to publish books that by their nature repudiate this pernicious force–novels, poetry, children’s books and books that transcend genre.
Our launch book, in June of 2006, was John Bennett’s novel, Tire Grabbers, a fable of sorts, a reality book rooted in the fantasy of our times, the story of the coming of Moloch and the children who rise up in rebellion against it.
Books of kindred spirit will follow close on its heels. Go for it by clicking here… or hit the Hcolom logo above…