Shadows, Amanda Wisbeck Your son isn’t crying. The crowd shuffles along, their suits and black dresses a stark contrast against the bright blue sky and beaming sun. Your wife walks beside you, her face empty and her fingers clenched around sodden…
Flickering Strings of Love, Paul Knight I love you the most watching you get pushed around in a crowd of people while a band plays— Your hair glued to your sweaty face. I watch your mouth contort as you sing…
Rise, Meg Jenson I. lichen, cold mornings, earth, my mother, sleepy afternoons, songbirds in canopy II. i have been driving for miles & miles, always this back & forth between us, i want to tell you that the yellow flower-weeds have…
I Believe in Laundry, Julia Tasho I don’t believe in God, But mother tells me to pray We don’t go to chùa or burn red marks on our backs. But we must believe in love. Ancestral love leans forward expectantly…
Element of Speech, Bethany Dudek Day 1, February 1999 First observation of symptoms. Subject is a Caucasian male, 3 years old as of today (February 20th), outwardly healthy, one younger brother. Plays relatively well with other children, no observable developmental…
Illuminated, Ava Fojtik Fuck the heal-toe method. This rebel flat-foots, ‘n’ pancake-slaps the shit-zoo out of her sidewalk. Balancing herself over the concrete edge, like some acrobat holding her lover’s hands while she tumbles through the thin air. Pausing only…
Nature Administers a Rorschach Test, Margaret May 1 I pull my voice recorder out of my pocket, and press the red button. “Hi, mom,” I whisper, not wanting to disturb the peace, “one time, you asked me what the mountains…
For Sale, Jess Mezzi In Spanish, the word for “moon” and “sun” are feminine and masculine, respectively. My mother told me it was because the moon represents women and the sun represents men. “Women,” she said, “are supposed to be…
Study of Myself, Bella Pozo The bell above the chapel does not ring anymore. Midnight comes and goes with no herald. Sister Mary Monica is used to silence, but she misses the bell. She doesn’t need it to…
Girl, Azure Arnot After Sally Wen Mao All I remember is the glare of cameras. Every mouth I’ve met is a flight risk which is to say that no one will kiss me offscreen. Instead, I am propped …
Warped, Rachel Donohue When the distance between the bottom of the steps and the edge of her bed was too far for her to travel, I made the journey happily and often. After bounding up the carpeted stairs on all fours…
Grandma’s Cupcake Stand, Jessica Ashworth As an adult, Desmond P. Merina will claim that Sunday, October 6, 1991 is the most significant day of his life because it is the day he causes a catastrophic bouncy castle collapse at the Sierra…
Bright Nights City Lights, Jackie Phuong Ta I woke up to the cooing Of a warm voice, That reminded me Of my mother And felt a chilliness Of a hand on my Feverish forehead. So cold. I imagined…
We Sleep the Same, Kate Drakulic What magic there was in eating your green beans that made you grow through the night as you slept sweet and curled into dark like cocoons— I am in love with…
ano nakikita Mo?, harana After a few minutes of watching people walk through the cold wind my now ex asked me if I was ready. We were waiting to walk in to the pharmacy to get my first…
Say a Prayer, Mikaela Rae Antoigue In 2016, my grandparents’ dog died. He was an old dog, covered with warts, and they had to put him down due to his misery. Some time later, their other dog died,…
Untitled, Jessica Ram Our father mixesa searing elixir—a paste of garlicin a steel bowljuice from a knotof ginger-roota dab ofhoneyed cayenne.He sayshe needs it to cry.I think of his motherbeating himin a hot stone house,a brown-eyed calfin an…
Place in the Sun, Marisa Murrow if anyone asks, we’ll tell them that the world broke us limb for limb before we could build ourselves wings the earth flowers & thunders to life as time converges, divulges herself into the…
Shadows, Amanda Wisbeck Hey Tray, I know we’ve never talked, but I needed to reach out to someone. Someone that could understand what I’m feeling right now, what I’m going through. I’m sure you know the news by now. They…
World’s Finest, Chloe Hiu See Tsang I hope you get stung in the face by a bee while you help your dad tear down the rotting swingset in the backyard, the one next to the barn and the boulders where the…
Late Onset Adolescence, Breck Hickman But you cannot have my soul. You can take my body, you can cook it. Yes, marinate it in some oppressive, tangy sauce—some recipe passed down from oppressive, tangy grandfathers. You can grill it on a…
Two Rivers Meet, Rebecca Turnbull We were driving through the marshes of the Meadowlands on our way to Newark when my mother forgot where she was for the first time. She always had trouble with dates and…
