Geodess, Eric Fram The Subaru Tetris–puzzle of suitcases and boxes was unyielding to the hat box that wasn’t shaped like a box. Shotgun was reserved for the fichus. Packed in on the sides were table cloths—lace for special occasions,…
Junglescape, Meagan Dwyer You wake up. You don’t know how long you’ve slept, but it’s time to get ready for school. Oddly enough, you rolled over onto your stomach at some point in the night. Open your…
Passage of Time, Logan Sullivan My father and I used to watch stars go out, Up on the hill. We would pull the soiled recliners, Out from under the barn, And walk them up the driveway.…
Untitled, Zachary Vaughn On a closed silver garbage can next to boxelders and cockroaches, cigarette butts and rat droppings, broken baby rattles and urine-soaked diapers, a matching pair of size 12 dress shoes. I go down…
Self-Portrait, Thomas Vause When you wake up, you will weigh yourself one, two, three times for safe measure. 95.0 lbs, 94.6 lbs, 94.8 lbs. Fat, fat, obnoxiously fat. You will poke at your cheeks where they are…
Untitled, Elise Ketch Some would say you’d get lonely out in the big darkness with not a soul on board except for the empty husks of the dead. Marty Corpus would say that they’d be wrong. Of course, though,…
Self-Hatred, Logan Sullivan when I put the last dish in the drainer, when I light a candle and set it on the coffee table, when I merge onto the freeway. I want to share that quiet, a…
Beauty After the Storm, Rae Clickenbeard The clock on the stove blinks 12:00a.m., but I know that it’s actually 4:52p.m. I’ve been meaning to reset the clock since the electricity was shut off temporarily a month ago. “Put…
Suffocation, Elise Ketch Two girls at a softball game. One with silky golden hair and one with red shoes. It’s one of their boyfriend’s games, one of those interchangeable boys—maybe he has long hair, maybe he has…
Envy, Yulia Kenley I. We go to the “Picasso house” today. That’s what Aeden calls it anyway. It’s his family’s art museum, or what’s left of it. The main atrium, with the arched glass…
Tomato Menace and Floral Rabbit, Jury St. Judge Oranges My father sits cross-legged on the edge of the couch, a plastic bowl in his lap and a knife in his hand. He peels and…
Devil’s Claw, Victoria Barry that’s jagged and circular like a small stone severed from a larger rock The dried blood cavernous and sharp Pussing from the eye of the sore It stings itches begging me to pick at it Peel…
Holy, Nia Owen When Mother contracted the virus, she had a villa built in Sabratha, Libya, where Roman ruins and human bones lay desolate by the sea. Her doctor estimated that the virus would lie dormant in her…
Smooch, Cassandra Warner Grandma was squatting on a low stool in the stuffy bathroom, lit only with a window open to the traffic below and reeking of blood splashed over the tiles. In between her legs was a…
Beach, Jacob Roosa i. tightly spun egyptian cotton, imported of course, wraps up your wet body like it did for pharaohs. you picture kings who lounged about in silken kimonos watching the bronzed laymen selling their city’s…
Untitled, Zachary Vaughn Five o’clock shadows cast down their doubting eyes. They turn my wall – a hapless host to a lone Light Bulb – gray. My sea-glassy-eyed window vets each immigrant sunbeam who asks to…
H2O, Erin Lee You must have stared at your reflection for an hour before the choice was made. Your eyes followed up the slope of your nose to your eyebrows and the jet black hairs subtly connecting them. It was…
