Phillip Barcio
brabblefly.bsky.social
Phillip Barcio
@brabblefly.bsky.social
Author - Journalist - Gardener

I'm skeptical of this place.

https://www.philbarcio.com/
Need an epic soundtrack for tricks or treats? Got an Internet connection? Tune in to WQRT.ORG from 4 to 10 p.m ET. From 5 to 8, you'll hear my first-ever Halloween show, Phil Boocio's Nevermore Neighborhood Halloween Boo Bash. Guaranteed to get you in the spirit 👻 . Full schedule below!
October 31, 2025 at 5:03 PM
My story The Vacantlands reports on the horrors and absurdities lurking at the intersection of domesticity and unrestrained capitalism. It won Boulevard magazine's Nonfiction Award for Emerging Writers, and is included in the current print issue of the magazine.
Boulevard Vol. 39, No. 1 (Winter 2025) — Boulevard
This issue includes 2023 Fiction Contest winner Mary Elizabeth Dubois, 2023 Nonfiction Contest winner Phillip Barcio, and 2023 Poetry Contest winner Lucinda Trew. It also features a Boulevard Craft In...
www.boulevardmagazine.org
July 8, 2025 at 9:21 PM
"The trip to the edge of town seemed longer than the last time he had made it, and Eddie wondered if he might be shrinking."

-from Gift of the Brabblefly
April 23, 2025 at 4:04 PM
I started my efforts by polling the moon marmots to ascertain what they most hoped to achieve for themselves. They gave a range of answers. Peace. Clean water. Meaning. Pinecones. Dignity. Kibble.

-from My Role in the Extinction of the Moon Marmots
April 14, 2025 at 5:23 PM
"Summer gently pulled us along, like old dogs on a sniffy walk around an endless, meandering, fire hydrant-covered avenue."

-from Bean There
April 10, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Apocalypse comes from the Greek apokalupsis. It means, “to uncover or reveal.” COVID-19 revealed much: how many of our leaders are egotistical navel-gazers; how interconnected Earth has become; and how limited technology is when it comes to curing loneliness.

-from COVID-19 VS. The Art Field
April 3, 2025 at 4:31 PM
"You gave what you needed to someone who needed it less. That is truly the spirit of generosity."

-from The Nirgrantha
April 1, 2025 at 9:38 PM
We're in a relationship with nature, insofar as we allow ourselves to be. As Ishmael points out in Moby-Dick, as he pursues his negotiation with the sea, “there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.”

-from Look to the Sea
March 28, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Sympathy and pity require othering by positioning us outside of each other’s realities. Empathy asks us to actually feel what it is to be someone else.

-from Becoming Each Other
March 27, 2025 at 12:03 PM
The forms come about because of the realities of the materials—bronze or steel. But also because of the beauty he’s trying to express. He hits them with fire, slices into them, pounds them with a hammer until every flaw becomes part of a unified whole.

-from Natural Tendencies
March 24, 2025 at 6:10 PM
I pounce atop a massive, curved, fiberglass slab seeking a better angle for a photograph of Mr. Bunyan’s boot. Darren tells me I am actually standing on part of Tasset’s Eye. “We had to cut that eyeball into 17 pieces,” he says.

-from Fiberglass Beasts of the Wisconsin Wild
March 23, 2025 at 6:05 PM
I washed ashore at the Southernmost Point. I met a man there who was watching for things that might come crawling out of the sea. “Why have you come crawling out of the sea,” he asked me. I said, “I am a Nirgrantha.” He said, “I noticed you weren’t wearing a tie.”

-from The Nirgrantha
March 22, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Fashion invents classes.

-from My Role in the Extinction of the Moon Marmots
March 22, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Eddie's plan was to eat the paczki in the brabble field, to dip it in the piping hot beverage he had brought so the sensual liquid soaked through to the huckleberry dreams inside, releasing their silky aroma of lovers' regrets.

-from Gift of the Brabblefly
March 22, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Lounging seaside we found three pieces of something called sea glass, a highly collectible item according to a passing Beach Bum. Sea glass doesn’t start out as a gem. It starts as trash.

-from Bean There
March 21, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Typically, I pick up cash I see on the ground. I don’t know exactly how the universe operates in regards to this kind of thing, but walking past orphaned money without making the effort to collect it seems like the wrong message to send out.

-from Gee, Money!
March 20, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Most people won't rob you, even if they have the chance. Most people won't hurt you, even if you deserve it. Most people love each other without hesitating. There are no enemies, only collaborators in the creation of moments, waiting to see what we’re going to do together next.

-from Muddy Waters
March 18, 2025 at 2:03 PM