by Lyz Mancini The man was nodding out, one unlaced sneaker caught at an angle on the frame of a beat-up Chevy Camry, its door pushed wide on its hinges like a starving mouth. His eyes widened as he suddenly pitched forward, clutching a shabby blue worker’s hat to his…
by Katie Kenney At the doctor’s office the carpet cloudy,matching magazines so melancholy with weepy celebrity stories, watery wallsfor wild vines reaching to nowhere. Curled-up posters of the elderlywith your disease, so happily the mere picture of livingwith a single peppy foot inside the grave. They’re saying the secret of…
by Kashawn Taylor In this big housealone in my own room I hear from downstairs fourteen strange men loafed on couches enraptured by guys in tights running back and forth across a manicured field on this day of Thanks hooting laughing shooting the shit It could be worse Shit, it has been worse much much worse than babysitters in an office under…
by Julian Gallo She has the right hairstyle, the right eyeglasses, and the right clothes—everything carefully crafted to solidify her place in the bohemian world in which she desperately wants to belong. She holds court at the table at the back of the café, surrounded by mostly male admirers, all…
by Jarek Jarvis I am coming to terms with the cosmichorrors of everyday reality. Catastrophespropagate around me. Even if I ignorethe peripheries, I know that formillennia you have hidden your facebehind the sun. Despite light pollution,I scan the muddy horizon in anticipationof your eventual reemergence. Sure,some Mayan mathematician may haveforgotten…
by Jeffrey Kingman I’m dissolving into a girl on a pier on a lake. I thought you might see yourself that way my washy pastels. If there is a pier and a lakeyou might come along as a pair of eyes a singularity and all you can do is remember…
by Jackie Tricolli I wake in a room with four blue walls. Palest of blue. Soft, soothing walls. A room with twin beds and matching comforters, a delicate blue and white floral chintz pattern. A room that once held trophies and secrets and fights between two sisters. Claws out over…
by Gil Hoy I’m watching the snow fallthrough my kitchen window,pine trees are crusted with snow.White shadowed in black,a squally wind is filled with snow. The phone rings. My sister Sallyis calling. Mother passed awaythis morning. I’m sitting all alonein my apartment, unpacking boxes loaded with dishes to fill my cabinets. I’m told…
by Frank William Finney I’m sucking on soapin a cabin kitchen while suds seep outthe broken windows. All of this is just to saywe all feed our sinks in our own woozy waysdespite your subtle spoof on spoons; the fine set of forksyou stole as a child; the way you…
by introverse Zeus, the unbearably human god that he is,decides to shake the apartment this afternoon. i’m tucked inside the covers as he burns the skywith rage, in search of his least favorite daughter. as above—stone pillars pulverized and clouds in disarray,so below—a line of trees catching fire, mortals stranded…