Richelle Lee Slota

This is an absolutely magnificent piece of literary fiction. Right out of the gate you not only care about the protagonist, but everybody around him. This book is so original it dares, and succeeds, to shoot down the corrosive pox of incest with chasers of comic absurdity . . . and tumblers of love and tenderness. The real value of any literary work is when you’re completely convinced you know the true quality of the writer’s mind—not so much as a friend or family—but as an unrecognized part of yourself. This is what Richard Slota, as the STRAY SON, did for me and I can’t thank him enough.

–Peter Jacob Streitz

First published by Abraxas as a long poem, then by Samisdat as a chapbook, then Rainbowdash Publishers published it as a play based on the poem. It was produced by Solano Repertory Company in Fairfield, California. It was published under my dead name, Richard Slota.

The poem is a dramatic monologue in 15 parts. Michael, a Vietnam medic, recalls the war, leading up to his discharge as the lone wounded survivor of a slaughter.