Boudin 2020

Boudin 2020 Fiction “to patch,” “to atrophy,” & “to flip” by Tyler Barton “Winter with Periwinkle” by Redfern Boyd “The Sound of Silence” by Amanda Hays “Encounter” by Benjamin Kessler “Leaving Leaf River” by Hannah Kroonblawd Poetry “From the Labor Café in Warsaw” by Jeffrey Alfier “Earnest Postcard,” “Bird’s-Eye View,”…

is it too tender to kiss?

is it too tender to kiss? Hannah Rousselot __________ I.in the past, i always held my wounds outgaping and red, hoping someone would noticeand want to kiss me better. many tried, but none could re-knitmy skin, my heart, my brain togetherwith strands from their own body.i had to do it…

to patch, to atrophy, & to flip

Tyler Barton __________ to patch Fletch and Gil and Sal and Del are stuck on the side of the highway in Kansas, waiting for Triple-A to come and fix the broken tire of their sprinter van. The hole in the tire is shaped like the hole in the center of a…

What Fancied Her

What Fancied Her Rikki Santer __________ If a toilet seat can be a lyre& applause stored in a box then this is the story of a believer—your closet in the candy-colored language of clown—you witha pimiento center & comfortable as a sock, never ruffled or lacybut blooming in tie-dye spider…

Burn Rising & Year Of The Rat Again

Court Castaños __________ Burn Rising Yesterday, Blake asked me, what are you doingwith your hands today? I opened them, read:too clean, too dry. And remembered thesehands, just seven years old,aimed for his eye, glasses and all, sockedit red, puffed, like a burn rising.Blake Gollmer, my best friend, and his betrayal:an…

Throw Down, Heist, & Bury

Esteban Rodríguez __________ Throw Down With rumors in every room,you learn who wants to throw downwith who, that tomorrow,or the next day or the next,you will face an enemy you didn’t knowyou had. And so, you go home,raid your mother’s jewelry box,put on every ring she owns,and in your room,…

Winter Sonnet, Your Failure, & Golden Rule of Window Washing

Seth Simons __________ Winter Sonnet But wait. I’m not an ornithologist.You’ve never lost your hat in Lake Erieor come to hate your friend one restlessAugust in a corn maze in Kentucky. Last Christmas we poured whiskey into snowpacked wooden bowls and ate it with a spoon.Your lips were cold blue…

Lovers in Alchemy & The Problem With Ghosts

Stephanie Athena Valente __________ Lovers in Alchemy drip me in quartz,powder my lipspurple swollen, i ate the bees,there was nothing left alive tinged eyelashesher skin, drippingpretending to be translucent. we’re gamine, thinking aboutthe humanity, not thinking about humanitysipping, slipping polished stoneslike royal honey, like truth into diamond pots,we’re listening nymphs,…

Broad Ripple, Toxic Masculinity, & The Uber Driver That Asked About the Snow & Dear Standard Parts of a Workplace Letter—the hell do you know(?)

Bryce Berkowitz __________ Broad Ripple, Toxic Masculinity, & The Uber Driver That Asked About the Snow To: Isn’t it always the father, the mother?From: Isn’t it always the man behind the drapes?Date: They didn’t even know it was my birthday.Subject: Broad Ripple, Toxic Masculinity, & The Uber Driver…

Invasive Spotted Lanternfly Close to Ohio Border, Tableau Vivant, & Yarn

Sara Moore Wagner __________ Invasive Spotted Lanternfly Close to Ohio Border It’s a mirror of a lantern,it hangs over the garden,sways back and forth on the fingerof the fern, outstretched. Semi-translucent, wrapped in red, crimsonas the bottom of a well in the morning,lit up. It echoes the ladybug, that littlered…