Bright Nights City Lights, Jackie Phuong Ta I can’t find the words that won’t escape my lips to reach paper. Setting up equipment feels unreal, even creating content doesn’t feel natural enough with all the chaos in the world. A…
ano nakikita Mo?, harana On Monday the carrots mom packed me were soggy and grey where their shoes should’ve been. I threw them to seagulls and Ms. Villin kept me after class, telling me I was ungrateful. I looked for…
Untitled, Julia Sub for Lola Tita and another to water the three potted plantson the shoe rack, stalk of baby bamboopricked by cactus and shaded by heartleaf,all of it garden enough. it is one thing to eat and another to…
Eclipsed, Scott Gathright Because we drove pastThat crack in the highwayWhere a glimpse, a bone-clenchedFistful of pennies, of locked doors,Pressed hard, thumbed insistentlyInto who I thought I am.Was gone before I could winkAway flares it leftOn my sight, Implications.Violet, vindictive spotsThat will…
Little Architect, Natasha Hirt Solemn willow, sole witness to tea party stragglers left under a leaking sky. Cups of porcelain dribble coffee childishly mimed as sweet nectar and tea laden with nonexistent ripples of honey. Copper spoons morph to peeling…
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…
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,…
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…
Skin Mask Replica, Hunter Louis “Mill in sand.” Windmills pump water out of the sand to irrigate peanuts. At the junction of NM 206, NM 258 and NM 262. Halfway between Portales and Lovington. Still have no idea? ‘Bout a 100…
Opulent, Taharah Islam Part Four (continued from The Shield Maidens of Hafrsfjord, Part Three) Two days have passed since the chaos of the poisoned chests. The chests of silver and gold have been buried deep within the woods of Northumbria. The last…
The Funnies, Justine Newman My family moved this week. This morning, my mom told me she was going to come “check my room” at some point, which means to evaluate whether my unpacking and cleaning is satisfactory. As usual, her need…
Heat Wave, Rachel Ikins Characters: Alex: 29 years old, male, Leni’s twin brother—the stable, mildly sarcastic half of the twin equation Leni: 29 years old, female, a bit of a drama queen, having a hard time coming to terms with her…
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…
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…
How to Survive a Pandemic, Ashley Webster A guided house tour: spring break, March 13-21, 2020, Prospect Heights, IL. FRENCH WINDOWS In the mornings I sit in an armchair in front of them, staring out into a yard the size…
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…
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,…
