Featured Writing

A bell resting on the front desk

The Office of Eternal Collections

by Dakota Jackson The Office of Eternal Collections—better referred to as purgatory, both literally and figuratively, especially to Luci—is becoming quite hectic these days. As the head of the Decisions Department, Luci, (known in his past first as Lucian and later as Lucifer), is in charge of the recently deceased….

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Author Archive

Neighbors US Postal mailbox

Midwestern Nice

by Khristy Knudtson The Midwest region of the United States garners a reputation that is unlike any other. Wisconsin, where I have lived all of my life, embodies airs of apologetic pleasantries in almost every interaction. This concept of “Midwestern nice” is a pervasive descriptor of the Midwestern people—it defines…

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We Forget You’re Fifteen

by Khristy L. Knudtson Willfully strong-willed, your hair is a field; stalks of tangled straw you force from your head freeing the strands from your fingersover and over and over. They eclipse the tile floor of the juvie centeryou’ve lost it, your center. You are a lit match—tossed.An apocalyptic comet of…

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Driving along the highway at sunset.

Blinded

by Khristy Knudtson Flying on frontage roads,sipping iced coffee,and carbonated water,thrift-store findsstuffed in the hatchback. Two 30-somethingsignored their latestexistential crisesfor a sunset, a summer high,singing Third Eye Blind and The Cardigans.

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A Gunshot

by Khristy L. Knudtson I focused and realized your face has not looked this beautiful      since I was a child and since I was your “Muffin.”I focused and realized your face has not looked this beautiful      since it was illuminated in the middle of these crosshairs.The smooth, crescent moon of the trigger      carressed…

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Large, empty classroom

Suffer the Lacerated Children

by Khristy L. Knudtson I spend five days of my seven educating teenagers pretending I’m not an emotional delinquent with the same “mommy issues” as the boy with the overgrown yellow hair in the back row with the newly minted scars.  He radiates pain like a nuclear bomb everywhere he…

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