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Pile of cassette tapes

Four Octaves for Cyd Charisse

by James Maynard 1/Particular, with a forty-second street skimmerPendant on the toe of your stilettoWhich lifts, emerald, into the carcinogenic heavenAbove Gene Kelly’s eyes. Yet when you moveCosmic — world & form splashing into singularity.A figure turning a figure, turning.What is seen then not seen, a flash of the eternalThen…

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Close-up of a black snake

Black Snake Wound

by Dee Allen The old Lakota prophesyHas come to passIn our lifetime.As any creatureBound to the land would,A long black snakeSlithers over turf,Then travels underground.Below, it steadlily travelsAnd along the way,It gets woundedBy anything, even byPouring torrential rainsFalling like a guillotine blade,And slowly bleedsOunces of visceraSlick, thick andDeepest of black.Nearby…

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Rusty chain link fence gate chained closed

Dad for Sale

by Kamillya Hunter I grew up in the suburbs. Scratch whatever image just came to mind because I promise it’s not accurate. Let me paint a clearer picture. One of rusty chain link fences surrounding patchy lawns, where stray dogs roam and chase kids down the street. Worn-out sneakers were…

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School of fish under the ocean

A Poem is an Ocean (after Charles Bukowski)

by Amanda Valerie Judd a poem is an ocean full of depths and reefsfilled with sharks and sailors and seaweedfilled with plastic and whale spermwhipping up a tidal wave and a hurricanea poem is an ocean working for industriesa poem is an ocean losing its relevance as a living thinga…

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Leaves floating on water

Dark Water

by Gabe Converse “Dark Water” placed second in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2023 Fall Fiction Contest. The pond behind the old house is full of leaves and scummy water. It hasn’t been touched for months. Louis comes to it sometimes in the early morning, his feet bare and damp and…

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Woman sleeping in bed

Sleeping Beauty

by R.E. Bunch “Sleeping Beauty” placed third in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2023 Fall Fiction Contest. “I’m dying,” She croaked. The sing-song in her voice was strangled out in a hoarse wheeze. “It’s the flu,” The back of my hand rested on her forehead. Her hair was matted to her…

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Birds perching in leafless trees

Beasts

by Ness Wheeler “Beasts” placed fourth in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2023 Fall Fiction Contest. The long winter had forced every creature to be bold in how they got their nourishment, and few were as bold as I had been to keep my brood fed. At midnight, every ten sunsets,…

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Milky Way galaxy

Rat-a-Tat

by Mackenzie Bodily “Rat-a-Tat” placed fifth in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2023 Fall Fiction Contest. Marlyle watched the words “BEACON ACTIVE” slide over the walls of his one-man cruiser. The cabin was dark, illuminated only by the stars outside the window and those words projected in bright red by his…

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Person holding an amethyst stone

I Traded My Heart

by Laine Derr I traded my heartfor an amethyst – Gifted it to a girlwho sits in the sun. She touchesmy smile, w/ lips rubbed smoothby winter rain. Hands holdinga stone beating my love, shiningdays of pale purple. I traded my heartfor lilac, for her.

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