Category: VOLUME IV

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…

Popcorn, Karlen Lambert [Trigger Warning: Depictions of mental illness and gore, brief racist language] 2                 At least twice a week I drive either to, or from Red Wing, Minnesota, from     Lauderdale. This takes just over sixty minutes. I call this my Crying Commute. After I pass the exit for Treasure Island Casino, as my old…

Into the Ether, Nicky Meaux       In the 1940s and 1950s, the splatters and color fields of Abstract Expressionism became the predominant American art form. Regarding the movement, Clement Greenberg proclaimed, “If American Society is indeed given over as no other society has been to purposeful activity and material production, then it is…

Collection, Mary Hitchings   I can’t breathe– like paper cuts behind my eyelids I cough up banana peels every time I kill a spider. I miss laughing and the jingle of dog tags. No one plays the piano anymore.     About the Author Carol McCarthy · University of Iowa Carol McCarthy is from Downers…

Untitled, Sam Youkilis [Trigger warning: Graphic discussion of sex] I was sneaky and I was in love.  I was old enough to have a crappy job and some spending money, but young enough to live without sleep.  Night after night, I would tiptoe out of my mother’s house after calling for a taxi.  Mom’s place…

Kelpa, Justine Stewart [Trigger warning: graphic body horror] They made their nest in the nook of her neck. It was a Tuesday, if she remembers correctly, when she first noticed it. As the days passed, the nest began to pulse until, finally it burst and the bugs came crawling out in their sticky green glory.…

Impact, Heather Thornton       Autumn shuns Niagara Falls; it always has. The cold water has always been cold, The bare trees have always seemed bare, The ground is usually hard-packed with primordial permafrost, And daylight savings is a lie, for there has never been any daylight to save.   We stand in our…

Dreamscape II, Meagan Dwyer [Trigger Warning: brief mentions of abortion, depictions of child abuse, eating disorders, graphic medical depictions, brief ableist language] “If you could have any superpower, what would it be?” Mike asks. “Superpower?” Art’s brow wrinkles. “What, like x-ray vision or something?” “Yeah, man. Like Spiderman, or Superman. Something like that.” “Ah.” Mike…

Emerge, Meagan Dwyer [Trigger Warning: mentions of abuse] For the daughter of someone who loves, it was always easier to break bread. White velvet wrapped around and you walked on thick revelry. The cold pews penetrated my thin dress. Hymns beat stale smells between my thighs and as a child I tried to picture a…

Look Up, Brandon Mark [Trigger Warning: brief mentions of drug use] Kid He tripped. His name was Jason and he tripped over his shoes that were too big. His brother had given him shoes when Jason’s finally disconnected at the souls. He didn’t have any money, his brother was gone, and his cat gave him…

The Depression, Ann Mangano   In the kitchen, Manprit chopped a yellow onion into long, thin strands. She pushed the pile off the cutting board and into a bowl with her knife, and started on the next one. She felt the tears slide down her cheeks and settle beneath her chin. The onions, somehow, after all…

Rain Room, Shana Joseph [Trigger Warning: mentions of suicide] Winter 1 Wake up. Freezing. Groggy eyes. Roll over. A fog of ice crystal formed on the window last night. It is wide open. Shiver. Something is wrong. I can’t remember what, but the pit in my stomach pulls. I reach for the fleece blanket but…

Girl in the Wings, Chloe Ella Urbanczyk [Trigger Warning: Mention of animal hunting] After we’ve shot the swallows from the sky I tell you of the coast you’ve forgotten, memories turned legend, migrating inwards. I am the gluttony learned by leeching the ocean, all swallow bones and winter. Wait with me as I sift through…

The Standpoint of Daily Life, Sarah Loreth [Trigger Warning: depictions of sexual harassment, mentions of violence and death] I was riding the 81, just cruising down Fig, mentally stripping this blue-haired girl four rows ahead. She was maybe twenty five. I couldn’t tell whether her eyes were open or closed. In those days, I liked…