Pink Creek, Louise Rossiter The wind      that daywas an irate infantan infant beset with colic tempestuous and tyrannical raging and wailing displeasure grasping and pulling and pushingup, then down, then sidewayshowling for attention a terror, to be sure especially for anyone who had yet to encountersuch voracious and single-minded determinationto be inconsolable  …

Rust Rorschach, Timothy Embertson   if i put my foot to the floor or take the turn just rightthe horizon will swallow this ought-to-be-ghost town. watch: i slip out through the teeth of that mawand chase the stars in the endless wide out-there,dodging leering eyes at desert rest stopsand waking stiff-necked in the backseat.  watch:…

War is Over, Ernest Volynec Today’s spent echoing the beagleas I keep watch from the window,assessing each speck of land of thisplace called home or territory ormemory, each plot of maple, juniper,japanese plum, the latest implant thatnever took and the wisest, sickest trunkof them all. When she’s inside, shetries to dig. When she’s outside,she digs and…

Rome is the City of Echoes, Gabe Montesanti You hated the flowers. I tried to hate them too. Can you see decay entering the frameof our picturesque domestic landscape? I am a creature of images, brief appearances.I try to save myself from second sight. Living this way is a small matterof deferring and deferringrecognition, which means…

A Very Long Party In Green, Li Anne Liew  Lives in a clear plastic bin below my childhood bed, neighbors with decades-old stuffed teddies and virgin candles gifted to me for my Confirmation, because I could never bear to throw them away. I’d scribble over the pages of collaged bible verses if I could, pressure the…

Monochrome, Emma Lassiter Anyways, I’ve been thinking about going for a swim. I have been researching lakes and bodies of water. I am uncompromising and precise in my analysis of them from 3000 miles away. There is a way it ought to be: a crystal perpetually stuck in the moment it is turned to liquid. It…

A Slow Decay, Ashley Webster My substitute mom massaged her threading hands As substitute dad typed religiously on his Blackberry She claimed I was finally ready for my soccer game and even asked me how I liked it I dragged myself over the hotel counter to stare into the mirror  At the heart protruding out of…

Whispers, Emily Bryn Author’s note: In CMSCI  449: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, students were assigned to write a natural language processing program that would generate commencement speeches. The result was authentic English, and although some sentences did not portray logical thought, others were rather profound. After playing around with different seeds and generating different speeches, the…

2, Julia Broeker my ex-best friend told me her boyfriend ate her pussy, but it’s okay;, she’s still a virgin.  but oh i forgot, i guess that’s all sex is for you guys. you know that part in fried green tomatoes when they throw flour on each other? yeah, that’s lesbian sex.   lesbian sex…

Untamed, Natalie Meador My flesh, a fixture In your sanctuary  Positioned strategically  For optimal usage; Your pleasure at its expense. Dents and scratches repeatedly Concealed by pungent lacquers; The handyman covers his messes.  The inflated ego turned your “Good as new,” into the new “I’m sorry.” You liked them Used and worn in, yet  Moldable enough…

The Complexity of Detail, Olivia Offutt Oh America, you bad bitch  I picked the cotton that made you rich -Kendrick Lamar, “For Free? (Interlude)” i. new York was once new Amsterdam  and new Amsterdam once had 11 men—then lifetimes later spawned the empire city  and the Black men & Red men built Wall Street and…

Livelihood, Liza Ashley I didn’t see anything at first  but I felt every bump  and crack of the dirt road, the sudden jolt and sharp turn of the wheel  as we made our own road  around the boy. mumbles and stares from all aboard  with one voice above the rest, “No, we can’t stop” the…

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Lady on the Platform, Adam Foster I can’t watch  without a bile of blood and bones inch up a throat choking on the knee of circumstance. The black of my closed eyelids is already a theater; the pit orchestrates the offences  nightly. The light of May  was violent, branding  my retinas with the violence  that ensued.…