Post Extraction Juleigh Howard-Hobson __________ It’s not simply the matter of the tooth coming out. There’s the gap, the open gum, the hole where there used to be a wall of solid teeth. You’ll never eat food again the same way, there will always be the blank space that no…
Read MoreKarris Rae Karris Rae is a fiction MFA/MA candidate at McNeese State University. She is also a fiction editor for The McNeese Review and managing editor of Boudin. Her chapbook, We Obedient Children, won the 2024 Etchings Press Chapbook Contest in prose. Her short work has recently appeared or is…
Read MoreTooth Appointment Ben Larned __________ You don’t remember your last visit to the dentist. It’s been two years, maybe three. All the way here your gums itch. The waiting room has a sickly hue, a chemical smell that reminds you of metal scraping and drills whirring. If it weren’t for…
Read MoreJaden Fong __________ Eviction Notice from the Tooth Fairy I fear that I have offended my teeth. They are as loose in my gums, bucking broncos in a gingivae stadium, but please, do not abduct them yet– these teeth do not know what is good for them. They have been…
Read MoreQuinton Okoro __________ jesus lost his milk teeth all at once. he placed them, still warm, pulp still clinging to crown, into his mother’s hand. she bent over him, her palm flattened with expectation. these will make a great gift for your father, mary said. jesus thought of joseph, his…
Read MoreSnappers/The Man on the Mattress Robb T. White __________ “You’re probably wondering what’s going on, right?” Asking yourself, ‘What happened’? ‘Where the hell am I?’ Can’t say I blame you,” he said, watching his eyes focus as he tried to turn his head one way and then the other. They…
Read MoreThe Dentist, The Bootlegger Meghan Louise Wagner __________ The drops went the same each month. I kept my hair under my cap and let Julian do the talking. After the boss counted the crates, he’d crack into a random bottle to sample. He’d take a couple glugs, swish, then nod…
Read MoreTonight John Brantingham __________ It’s 2ambefore I noticethe snow in the streetlight coming downin fat wet flakes.It’s an inch thick on the road, and no one’sdriven this way yet.Sirens are whining and so far from methat they’re soft as birdsong.The blue light of my neighbor’s televisionis playingoff his curtains. I…
Read MoreA Typical Day in the Life of Love JC Reilly __________ Love crawls from a holelike a mouse in the pantry;beware its droppings. Love seeks its shadow behind its back but can’t turn fast enough to see. Love hangs its sheet ona line in the morning sun.It snaps with the…
Read More