by Afieya Kipp I loved that night: the sky a cosmic ice cream sandwich—Jula, with her skin like stretched vegetable tanned leather, putting her gypsy bells to work outside my crescent window. A chandelier of cow hearts, goat tongues and bikini waxed bunnies for sale, for sale! Usually, the sign of…
by Grace C. Bennett What would it sound like, parted to sound? This is a dim bar in the gut of London. The moon is wrinkled on the water. Your striped red socks don’t match this boring atmosphere, I think it said Come sit across the table and tell…
by Amy Craton This quiet island, Skies pure and clear, Peacefully changing, Cycles through the year. Renewing in Fall; Not by escaping Bitter cold Winter For warm days of Spring. Cooling Fall breezes, Defeat hectic days. Soft and embracing, The air seems to play. Night falling today Reflects the season,…
by Tyler Townsend A memoir of Jordan. I The vast majority of the area located around Queen Alia International Airport consists of rolling sand hills and sparse trees, which give next to no shade. The sun in mid-June is a murderous fiend. The locals, who are obviously acclimated to the…
by Cheryl Sola I was born. Damn. Can’t anything go right? That was thirty years ago and nothing’s changed. Today’s my birthday, June 6th. Pa said my birthday numbers add up to 6–6–6. And because that number means the devil, my Pa called me the devil’s child, and got an…
by Grace C. Bennett To walk Parisian streets is to Sail with Vitus Bering, Rum casks loosed atop boards Stained with salt within vicious Blows of sick and yellowed sea, Pacific to Arctic an ill to poisoned freedom; If only memory In this case Were an exaggeration. The undulant expanse…
by Jason Spicer A man was shot, in the alley behind my grungy apartment last night, again. His bald pate bounced a stream of pleated light through the blinds on my second story window. No sirens or news crews, just muddy boots and forlorn faces—men who needed sleep, in uniforms…
by Heather Maieli That son of a bitch! She caught the punching bag as it swung back at her after her last punch, her fingers digging into the red leather. Its chain gave an almost protesting wail as if threatening to break free from the ceiling. She had been going…
by Robert Dinsmoor When I was four, my mother took me to see “Bambi,” a movie in which the title character’s mother is brutally killed near the beginning. I cried inconsolably. “What happens if you die?” I asked my mother. “What would become of me?” Her answer was as simple…
by Sarah Leslie We were the only two who could ever get into your head. Jack convinced you I manipulated you. But all he ever did was flush away reason and stir up a rage. It was never easy to pick between the two of us. You and Jack went…