@macsubhine
Michael McSweeney is a writer from Massachusetts. mpmcsweeney@gmail.com
Commonwealth Junction
Commonwealth Junction
Stories, poems and dispatches from Massachusetts. Click to read Commonwealth Junction, by Michael McSweeney, a Substack publication. Launched 6 years ago.
Windows (Substack, December 2025)
Windows (Substack, December 2025)
A short story.
a plane hits the mountainside (Expat Press, September 2025)
a plane hits the mountainside (Expat Press, September 2025)
no rain for weeks & then a plane hits the mountain outside Fallston the air clenches & breaks the jaws of my windows my dying cat hides beneath the bed for the rest of his cautious life fuel glazes the grass & road like volcanic syrup the dead stream down the mountainside as ambulances flash
City Desk (X-R-A-Y, May 2025)
City Desk (X-R-A-Y, May 2025)
Last spring the county newspaper paid me $200 to write about local dreams. I interviewed a man whose job it was to cycle out the books from the little lending library in the center of town. We met at a diner nobody liked and was always empty but stayed in business as such diners often do. He told me he mostly dreamed about colors. Yellow in spring, green in winter, purple in autumn. Summer heat made the man’s legs swell and he didn’t want to talk about what he saw those nights. He seemed uneasy about the approaching season. As...
Local Flavor (HAD, July 2024)
Local Flavor (HAD, July 2024)
Here comes J, patron saint of idleness who beat back cancer last October just to watch his missus fade, hauling a pot of soup down from his second-floor apartment. I'm across the street clipping my nails on the steps of the boarding hous
Disposals (Vlad Mag, June 2024)
Disposals (Vlad Mag, June 2024)
Fat Ghost (Misery Tourism, June 2024)
Fat Ghost (Misery Tourism, June 2024)
My house floated thirty feet above the ground.
America Bird (Farewell Transmission, May 2024)
America Bird (Farewell Transmission, May 2024)
Burning past Buffalo through the wildfire haze, I wanted to feel momentous, part of a final history, a mover in the American age of malaise,
Symphony No. 8 by Gustav Mahler (Major 7th Mag, April 2024)
Symphony No. 8 by Gustav Mahler (Major 7th Mag, April 2024)
You were still crying while we joined the crimson smear of traffic. My hands felt raw from the applause.
The Beast (HAD, March 2024)
The Beast (HAD, March 2024)
P was back in town for a few weeks of summer. I was still renting the place close to the river and P slept on the mouse-shit orange couch in the basement. I wasn't working and P had some cash to spare, so every day we trekked to the river's
BEEEES (Back Patio Press, December 2023)
BEEEES (Back Patio Press, December 2023)
On moving day Audrey knelt before her rust-crunched shitbox and attached the BEEEES license plate. The one that made the RMV lady laugh, that Zack hated. She thought about the days ahead, the drift…
Love Taps (Farewell Transmission, September 2023)
Love Taps (Farewell Transmission, September 2023)
Michael McSweeney is a writer and editor from Massachusetts. His first novel, Heroman, is forthcoming from Expat Press.
Organ Diary (Expat, September 2023)
Organ Diary (Expat, September 2023)
Scrawled above this scratch-paper diary is a checklist of organs. I've returned from the restful defeat of rural Massachusetts to recover them. Stomach. Heart. Lungs. Twenty-four hours to chase the parts of me abandoned six months prior by a different me. Someone I wouldn't recognize on the other side of a crosswalk brawl. My train
Night Shuttle (Rejection Letters, August 2023)
Night Shuttle (Rejection Letters, August 2023)
In the fall I flew out to visit an old friend in Chicago. Back then, I still worked in tech sales, my heart problems lingered untreated and divorce approached like a thunderhead. I was nervous to f…
The Escape Artists (Malarkey Books, May 2023)
The Escape Artists (Malarkey Books, May 2023)
We weave through the highway's hypnotic dark, an hour or so south of the White Mountains. I need to check the directions, I say. Do it, says the character, the end of a pistol raised to my face. My phone drinks power from the console. The screen's pearl light washes us as I open the map app. There
Plastic Baby Jesus (Farewell Transmission, April 2023)
Plastic Baby Jesus (Farewell Transmission, April 2023)
By Michael McSweeney I decided late on December 29th that I wanted some Christmas decorations for my apartment. Tim and I were drinking cheap beer because nobody in town could get the stuff I really wanted. The stuff I really needed. I was irritated, the beer too warm, stomach full of hot knots. I thought […]
Atmospheric Drag via Expat V (Expat Press, March 2023)
Atmospheric Drag via Expat V (Expat Press, March 2023)
If not for love we wouldn't know how to want. An event, a book of the dead, a toast to unsung travesties and unprecedented majesties. This is thematic supremacy. An escapism, a reveille. Characterless joints, disembodied questioning narratives. We're sacrificing all the leaden baggage of the written word to save it. We're leaving personalities behind
Come (X-R-A-Y, March 2023)
Come (X-R-A-Y, March 2023)
I buried the cat who died at the foot of the church (Substack, December 2022)
I buried the cat who died at the foot of the church (Substack, December 2022)
The Verse (APOCALYPSE CONFIDENTIAL, November 2022)
The Verse (APOCALYPSE CONFIDENTIAL, November 2022)
In the spring, I swore off liquor, gaming, and Massachusetts and moved into a four-floor boarding house in the city. My early days in that heap were uneventful: twelve-hour shifts as a copywriter i…
Happy New Year (The Schuylkill Valley Journal, September 2022)
Happy New Year (The Schuylkill Valley Journal, September 2022)
The Valley (Expat, September 2022)
The Valley (Expat, September 2022)
Get a Stumble Going (Rejection Letters, August 2022)
Get a Stumble Going (Rejection Letters, August 2022)
Third Date (Misery Tourism, August 2022)
Third Date (Misery Tourism, August 2022)
Honey Barbecue (The Schuylkill Valley Journal, May 2022)
Honey Barbecue (The Schuylkill Valley Journal, May 2022)
Icons (Maudlin House, March 2022)
Icons (Maudlin House, March 2022)
The Red Bird (Hobart, March 2022)
The Red Bird (Hobart, March 2022)
Interlude from HEROMAN (Selected Prose Podcast, January 2022)
Interlude from HEROMAN (Selected Prose Podcast, January 2022)
Mammals (Expat, November 2021)
Mammals (Expat, November 2021)
Tryouts (Misery Tourism, September 2021)
Tryouts (Misery Tourism, September 2021)
The Warthog Run (Daily Drunk Mag, June 2021)
The Warthog Run (Daily Drunk Mag, June 2021)
Saving Throws (Expat, May 2021)
Saving Throws (Expat, May 2021)
The Marathon (Peach Mag, April 2021)
The Marathon (Peach Mag, April 2021)
somewhere far (VANITY, March 2021)
somewhere far (VANITY, March 2021)
Driving With Fingers (The Schuylkill Valley Journal, March 2021)
Driving With Fingers (The Schuylkill Valley Journal, March 2021)
American Paper (Maudlin House, January 2021)
American Paper (Maudlin House, January 2021)
at the end (Skyway Journal, January 2021)
at the end (Skyway Journal, January 2021)
you, the necronaut (TGHR, December 2020)
you, the necronaut (TGHR, December 2020)
The Head Commissioner's Tale (Expat, July 2020)
The Head Commissioner's Tale (Expat, July 2020)
cocktails (Perhappened, July 2020)
cocktails (Perhappened, July 2020)
plague city symphony (TGHR, May 2020)
plague city symphony (TGHR, May 2020)
the time to shout is 3 p.m. (TGHR, April 2020)
the time to shout is 3 p.m. (TGHR, April 2020)
the sirens (TGHR, March 2020)
the sirens (TGHR, March 2020)
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