Synchronized Formation, Deirdre Murphy   I hang from the last brick of August, and cold is tolling. I don’t hear you, but I remember your summer breath, and you still feel like the softest blue behind my eyes. The months we spent together sit catty-corner: June and July. July, bent in half, turns to face the…

Fruit Basket Part II, Jordan Sommer     Last week, when Deb asked me to go to dinner with the Qureshis—the Qureshis are students at the University where Deb teaches—when Deb asked me about going to dinner at the Qureshis, we were right in the middle of something. You know, like I had my hand on…

Tiny Bust, Jordan Sommer     last night the clock struck three, a lonely bird chirped, and I walked into the kitchen on padded feet. slid onto the floor with the jar and a spoon from the sink. I live off of your rations for sweetness here and the jar has never been mine to take.…

Captive, Cynthia Lee   I almost have the delusion you are with me, crossing tuba soaked streets that leak gator juice into my boots. We pass by lobsters on leashes and fried shrimp earrings and tourists flock to fleur de lys cyborgs. Voodoo dolls pin themselves to my phantom braids going through the Spanish Plaza…

Tortilla Lady, Tamara Dobry     Preview:  This recipe will taste interesting.  Woodsy and starchy and so heavy it will make you feel bloated.  More notably, its title will impress your guests.   Difficulty: Was it difficult for you to leave home for the first time?   Total time: 1 hour for most people.  Probably 3 hours for you.   Prep time: Depends…

Lost Time, Erin Lee     coffeecup piss snow Destination Park Street the flashing Tedeschi’s sign two corners wide neon sidewalk puddles that are here until fucking April, at the earliest and 30pack Coors lite for $24.99. the constellations of CVS, Bottled Liquors, Inbound Pizza guide us home.   the mug in the sink is full…

I’m Tired of Talking About Myself, Jennifer Hart [Trigger Warning: Mentions of child death and abortion] A week after my mother’s funeral, I decided to stay in Wyoming. It seemed like a big decision, but I made it for small reasons. I was hideously menopausal at the time and the idea of going back to…

Untitled, Shiya Wu     O Memorandum, thou anonymous gift,   Thy narrow saffron figure reflects into glass, Camouflaged in radiant, fiery tones, as Apollo’s chariot hurtles toward its terminus;   To his daily haste, thy sprightly essence Is well acquainted, for wherever is A lusty pace, thy sisters shortly follow.   O keeper of…

Untitled #2, Karl Rivera     Aiden’s porn addiction began, unsurprisingly, with porn. For the first 15 years of his life—or really just the past three, in this context—he’d had to make do with his imagination, a few war-torn issues of Penthouse inherited from Uncle Rico, and a copy of Anaïs Nin’s Delta of Venus that his parents had overlooked…

Radioactive Beach Hypothesis Illustration, Elly Call [Trigger Warning: Brief depiction of drug use and addiction] and isn’t it crazy how cocaine ate through my family like vultures? the powder dances in both my grandfathers’ noses. mr. greene fell in love in Baltimore, st. paul’s and north; back then, treating your nose was like memory; now, the…

Small House Near Somewhere, Emily Hill     Is this what the world looks like to you after half a bottle, Ed?   Mountains raging down like drunken fathers? You’re intimately familiar with the slam   of stone against stone.                        Speak with me, wild boy: after all, you saw your own father ramrod in a…

Persephone, Ester Tang Trigger Warning: Depictions of a sexual nature, underage substance use, and animal death] Mom gave me a lift to Thalia’s house, because she needed the car for work and didn’t want me biking on the main road after dark. “Are you sure that’s the right address?” Mom asked when I told her…

Sunday Nights, Emma Brunette [Trigger Warning: Brief mentions of abuse and death] I couldn’t bring myself to take them home— the items sealed in the evidence bag: your wallet, thick with crumbly-edged school photos; an old T-Shirt stained with grease. It made no sense to take them home if I couldn’t take you. The doctor…

A New World of Light, Jake Fisher     Maple brush sifting thick curls awakens spiteful currents— traveling to your fingertips— bridging a circuit with the brass door knob— giving your hand a quick jolt.   Birthday balloons float aimlessly, drawn towards hairs stretching out to touch it— caressing its rubbery friction. Carried by a draft…

Media Naranja, Julianna Drew   they say my accent is almost gone, but maybe i never had an accent to begin with. is it the way the Rs roll off my tongue, streams rolling over river rocks, is it the way the letter A is wrapped in my throat, not hidden behind my teeth, is…

Interlocked, Roma Parikh     There’s a prince of these streets who knows where he is and it isn’t here His blue Mohawk crown and pale, skinny chest —bare beneath leather— draw the attention of a little old woman who teaches him how to sow up the holes in his jeans. Behind me, someone else…

Black Magic, Francine Thompson [Trigger Warning: Depictions of police brutality] My youngest sister is a 10-year-old girl… Not just a 10-year-old girl, But a 10 year old black girl. Not just a 10-year-old black girl, But a 10-year-old black girl who is hip to the shit that’s holding us back in this ass backwards world. Questioning the status of her blackness in the…

Karla with Candle, Kreuzberg, Berlin, Samantha Metzner [Trigger Warning: Graphic sexual content including r*pe and incest] We shall assume I’m the villain of this story. I usually am. I was, after all, motivated by personal desire over anything else. I saw you through the omniscient sight of the gods and lusted after you at once.…

Old Man Feeding Birds, Daniel Mrotek     You skitter mad, Jack, misguided ballistic with a lazy left eye and your high-pitched whine of a fuselage dripping coolant immediately crystalline to leave your flicker-   trail in the stratosphere. We watch you flicker by again across our televisions tonight, nomad- ic the way we could…

Untitled (athlete), Katie Burleson     I’ve talked to the freckle pressed into the pinky and sometimes the dimple on her ankle sings to me. I’ve watched as her lion hair scatters itself across her head as if it were an absurd halo given to her by some blizzard God.   Anthology eyes name every laugh…

Bee Girl, Kate Mitchell     T-10 minutes and counting She never used to think of herself as an adventurer, but those were different days and different realities. Maggie is right in the heart of it all—strapped right in and the rumbling’s about to begin. “Please be careful,” says a friendly male voice over the…

Growth, Liatris Hethcoat     Night spreads its net across the hours outside the window where he works, his figure cast in the lamp’s halved yellow orb, bare midwinter images shored   on white walls, his pencil leaves dust-colored marks that in the filtering halflight seem urgent. It’s more how he appears, the light at…