Flash Fiction by DB Cox: "Stranded"

DB Cox is a blues musician/writer from South Carolina. He grew up in a Southern Baptist Orphanage called Connie Maxwell Children’s Home in Greenwood, SC. He graduated from high school in 1966, and joined the Marines Corps right after the Vietnam TET Offensive in 1968. After being discharged in 1972, he spent several years playing guitar in bars, juke joints, and honky-tonks across the South.

Four Poems By DB Cox: "Spaces-For Charlie Parker", "Shades of Ray", "Take Me To a Place", "Natalie"

DB Cox is a blues musician/writer from South Carolina. He grew up in a Southern Baptist Orphanage called Connie Maxwell Children’s Home in Greenwood, SC. He graduated from high school in 1966, and joined the Marines Corps right after the Vietnam TET Offensive in 1968. After being discharged in 1972, he spent several years playing guitar in bars, juke joints, and honky tonks across the South.

Flash Fiction By DB Cox: "Hope"

DB Cox is a blues musician/writer from South Carolina. He grew up in a Southern Baptist Orphanage called Connie Maxwell Children’s Home in Greenwood, SC. He graduated from high school in 1966, and joined the Marines Corps right after the Vietnam TET Offensive in 1968. After being discharged in 1972, he spent several years playing guitar in bars, juke joints, and honky tonks across the South.

Fiction By DB Cox: "Paint It Black"

DB Cox is a blues musician/writer from South Carolina. His poems and short stories have been published extensively in the small press, in the US, and abroad.  His first collection of short stories called “Unaccustomed Mercy,” published by Studio Books, is available at the Amazon Kindle Store. 

Two Poems By DB Cox: Before Nightfall

DB Cox is a blues musician/writer from South Carolina. His poems and short stories have been published extensively in the small press, in the US, and abroad.  His first collection of short stories called “Unaccustomed Mercy,” published by Studio Books, is available at the Amazon Kindle Store. 

"The Kings" A Poem By Blues Guitarist DB Cox In Honor Of BB King

Legendary Blues Guitarist BB King

the kings

there’s a decaying piano

in “the graveyard bar”

that nobody plays

whenever i feel

like i’m starting

to disappear

into the chorus

of gray-faced patrons

mumbling conspiracy claims

into their beer

i wander over

to the keyboard

& bend my ear

toward the strings

A POEM WITH MUSIC BY DB COX: NIGHTWATCH

DB Cox is a blues musician/writer from South Carolina. His poems and short stories have been published extensively in the small press, in the US, and abroad.  His first collection of short stories called “Unaccustomed Mercy,” published by Studio Books, is available at the Amazon Kindle Store. To hear the poem set to music scroll to the end.

FICTION: "OBTAINING MERCY" BY DB COX

DB Cox is a blues musician/writer from South Carolina. His poems and short stories have been published extensively in the small press, in the US, and abroad.  His first collection of short stories called “Unaccustomed Mercy,” published by Studio Books, is available at the Amazon Kindle Store.

His poetry is also featured in this issue of IVJ.


Obtaining Mercy

Arthur Nagel is an ugly, little man. He stands barely four feet tall, and his head

is much too big for his body. The muscles on the left side of his face are totally