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Artificial Tears
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 abattoir.We watch him holdhis hissing salveto the cornersof his eyesand he grimaces.His tearswash downa stony…
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Epigraph
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 image of us there’s the shape of regret & then the blank space after it,…
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Hey Tray
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 got another one of us, bro. For real. This young boul named Jordan, down in…
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Response to a Real Overheard Conversation on the G Train
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 snakes whisper about your parents’ crumbling marriage. I hope the wasps swarm and I hope…
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You Can Have My Body
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 blistering cast iron pan. Then, take my body, and chop it into slender, insubstantial slices,…
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The Pools of Saint Mark’s Square
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 names and the like. This felt different. She had been staring straight ahead, at the…
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Don’t Pick Corn Before It’s Ripe and Other Lessons
Grandma’s Cupcake Stand, Jessica Ashworth Mom and I built a planter box in the spot where the oak tree used to be, before it was killed by Tussock Moths. We planted patty-pan squash, Tuscan Melon, blue pole beans, strawberries, and corn. One day, in early summer, she went outside to water the garden, and found…