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Precarious Weather
Rust Rorschach, Timothy Embertson The day I call the day my hair fell out, no hair actually fell out. Several bouquets simply gave with a small tug, and slipped my mind like thoughts. This wasn’t picking – the mud let go the roots, and every hair coming out said “oh, yes! This is…
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Fox Studies
“junior year prom, mom had to unzip my dress because i was having a panic attack and couldn’t breathe”, Evelyn Staats On the day that Miles turns into a fox, I wake up sneezing. I lay curled on my side, facing the nightstand. According to my alarm clock, it is 6:18am. I switch on the lamp…
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Reminiscing in the Land of Maple Syrup
An Ode to Breakfast, Emma Lassiter I was scared, that day. The last time I had been scared in that house was when I was seven, and my big sister and I were sleeping over; but a thunderstorm woke me up, and the ensuing hysterics summoned my parents to fetch me at one in the…
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Refrigerator Door
Dancer, Rose Horell and I can’t stop thinking about how I’ve gotten so used to doing everything alone. so when I reached into the fridge for a dozen eggs for the week with my right leg out to catch a door that never hit, I was startled when I looked over my shoulder to see you…
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The Planets Move Without My Consent
Poppies and WD-40, Chloe Moulin Morning consists of showering the body, donning the clothing, assembling the self. I wrestle into a tee shirt, and oftentimes a collared shirt atop it, a sweater, a jacket. I like things that cover my neck. I like things that have weight, like a quarter-zip or pants that hug a little…
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The Churchyard Yew
Catacombes de Paris, Elle Griffiths Granny always told me that the yew is the tree of death, and that I should never go under it. In college I learned that every single part of the yew, except for the skin of the berry, is poisonous. Even inhaling sawdust from a yew could kill you. I…
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ABC Haibun
Gas Station, Oscar Zenteno I was born in the room where my mother ate her first hamburger, the room where my father sat at her bedside, licking every crumb off her collarbone—where, years later, we hung fish-shaped lanterns on the smoke detectors, bellies glowing the shape of bombs, the room where the curtains held themselves…
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The Day It Happened
This Ain’t Belle’s Rose, Adriana Barker There came a winter that was not a winter, but the winter—the winter for which all the other winters had been waiting. The temperatures dropped to levels that broke every record and threatened to shatter the insides of every car and bus. Snow, nature’s most obstinate army, laid siege to…
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Communion
Molten Medium, Chloe Moulin He kisses his hand through my stomach I am a butterfly display, mounted under glass —pinned with a needle— pleasure with an exit wound. My stomach wound round the puncture. Taxidermy angel, dying a little death. I know why it was the seraphim circled the throne, ejaculating, “Holy! Holy! Holy!” I…
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Entropy & the Irrefutable Nonsense of Being
Immersed, Abigail Nasari “The people or countries that seem to have the highest happiness index seem to embrace the chaos of being human, meaning they don’t pretend that life is anything other than chaotic and random.” -Andrew French BestFriend is taking AP Chemistry. We sit by the bathrooms after school in the sad excuse of…
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The Nature of Time
The Complexity of Detail, Olivia Offutt It rises And falls Like breath Between whispers It twists Turns upon itself forever always will it swallow itself moment gorging on moment A snake eating its own tail turning always to consume. About the Author Colette Creamer · University of Richmond Colette Creamer is a senior Biology, Latin,…
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complex / complexion / complexity
Opulent, Taharah Islam embodied stories pass me on the sidewalk & my head is a balloon / floating above / but I still cannot see through skulls to the thoughts & narratives inside / from my inflated position / I suffer from a buoyancy complex / KOM-pleks (n.) an assemblage of featureless stick figures engaged in…
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Love Language
Precious, Rose Horell No one stays in Calcutta, India forever. Scan the headlines of the nearest copy of Calcutta Times or The Telegraph and you’ll almost certainly find an op-ed lamenting the brain drain. The education minister’s desperation is palpable in the title: “Why are our kids leaving?” His words are probably next to the…
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Marrow
Pink Creek, Louise Rossiter Laurel’s father was fired from his job at the end of August, a sure way to sour the remains of an already over-ripe summer. Its heat had been unbearable, with not even the small relief of a breeze to cut through the swelter. There was only the movement of mosquitoes and…
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The Pufferfish Limerick
Demonology, Jack Hoye There once was a man from Nantucket Who ate a pufferfish straight from a bucket. He said with a grin As he wiped off his chin, “The tetrodotoxin from this fish will bind to my voltage-gated sodium channels, thus blocking the passage of sodium through the bilayer, killing me in four to six…
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Wild, Rough Blue
Haku, Anna Hiltner My sister and I grew up between golden hills that glared against the rough blue sky of Tahoe country. Mom and Dad sat us down in a too-small, too-expensive California home to tell us we were moving to Florida. My sister and I pierced our home first with shrills for Disney, and…
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Elise
Rose-Covered Glasses, Margaret Wright I know her like she’s mine. Little sister, little child, little rhyme. We float in the gray-between; one of my hands holds her as a sister while the other tucks her to sleep, maternal lullabies and gentle touch. She doesn’t always know how to define me. I don’t either. I know…
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Raspberry Vapor
Fever Dream, Emily Lawson I met a woman early August,across her skin I felt tearful years.It was written on her stomach and thighs. A burning wish fired from her own tongue: “Loving arms and a pulse to be alive.” Breathing in your raspberry vapor,take me through each of your faded scars, I’ll carry those tearful years…
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Corona and Therapy
Dusk in the City of Angels, AJ Favorito i step into a massage chair designated for patients one man is distant enough we stare into each other as plastic balls knead my shoulders into tenderloin i make that disgusting enjoyment face I sometimes make trying not to laugh our eyes roll inside our heads I…
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Sisters
Precious, Rose Horell TW: Child Abuse I. “Do you think I’d look good as a blonde?” I ask my sister Cassandria as we sit in parallel spa chairs at Grace’s Nail Salon. Toes tied in tissue to prevent us from smudging our freshly painted nails, we twist our upper bodies to face one another while staying…
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while a professor pores over the enlightenment
Cotton Candy Woman, Kiara Florez funny, isn’t it that Eve bit into knowledge and all of my citations slither their way back to sons of Adam funny, isn’t it that we bore the brunt of it ate too much, too soon burped ourselves to exile funny, isn’t it the girl in the movie is sad…
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I’ll Keep Checking
The Unexpected, by Anastassiya Selezneva Data Transition 40233-22 Unpacking… World Jumper Yaniess, It has been over 30 local solar days since your last check in. I have not had any contact with the other Vigil AI’s, including from the core worlds. If you are receiving, please respond. Data Transition 40233-23 Unpacking… World Jumper…