Ruchi Acharya __________ Buried Emotions (a soliloquy) “Is this what it feels like? When rainy, dark, secluded clouds become the roof and dreadedleaves make the floor.”That’s what gyrated in my head as my unaware feet stumbled in the cemetery in the searchof a particular gravestone.“I exist as a hushed corner…
Read MoreShe began the apocalypse Brianna Condon __________ __________ Brianna Condon was born and raised in the snow drifts of rural Minnesota. When she isn’t writing, Brianna enjoys tapping for mana, tending to her houseplants, and listening to podcasts. She has been previously published in Tales From the Kitchen, The Short…
Read MoreNormal Makena Metz __________ Everything returns to stasisin time. Life goes on, the sun risesand falls, and I am lostin a sea of normal. Eat dinner, go to sleep, wake up, walk the dog.Normal is uncomfortable, unnatural.After everything- I don’t want tohave to go on. No one told me that…
Read MoreCaravaggio’s Shadow Colette Tennant __________ From the first day he noticed it,it became his only friend— dark to dark, shoulder bladesleaning away from the sun elbowing their way throughsharp angles of light their silhouettes clarifiedby colors around them both adept at holding handswith the night. __________ Colette Tennant has three…
Read MoreThe World Is Like That Too, The Journey Begins—Again, & Sorrow’s Kitchen Diane Gottlieb __________ The World Is Like That Too for Matthew I read a poem that said the world was there to fuck us.It was a sad poem, an angry poem. A poemof loss and longing and curse…
Read MoreExposure Roger Camp __________ Morningbirds slicethe rain-splashedwings a window openson my bedmy hand slidesover the slicksill dripping sheet selecting a panestripped of its dustI witness an execution the trees undressedraked with hailthe wallsleaf splattered the room darkensI can not readmy watch ticksno comfort in its sound the stormsilences the streetunmans…
Read MoreIn the Temple Shadows Maudie Bryant __________ Like wheat in autumn,Beauty glows golden,its fleeting, gilded lieschipping like glassscattered along some beachno one dares to walk. I’ve shed that sorry skin—eyes cradled in longing, achingto see themselves mirrored,just to know how they feel.Now I’m all bone and stone,a hard heart pulsing,silent…
Read MoreLetter from the Guest Editor Vallie Lynn Watson __________ Blooms in Dusk, indeed! I write this a few hours after my last graduate workshop of the year, a beautiful one of hurrahs and goodbyes. My second year on the bayou has eclipsed the first, which I didn’t think possible. But…
Read MoreBaby Joseph Nathan Poole Shannon __________ Carter stepped out of his car for the funeral, wishing he’d bought an umbrella. It was grayand drizzling in the cemetery, the scent of snow in the air. He hated April funerals, it alwaysseemed like a bad trade- a life for the renewal of…
Read MoreNike of the Salish Sea Eros Salvatore __________ Kay had the look of a faerie princess found under a mushroom in the forest—a seemingly innocent, adorable young woman searching for love as she metamorphosed into adulthood. But like the famous Nike of Samothrace, Kay had lost her wings and could…
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