Letter from the Editor Vallie Lynn Watson __________ October has flown by with a frightening speed, and I haven’t even carved or painted a pumpkin yet. This picture popped up the other day, reminding me of a slower Halloween, our pandemic Halloween five years ago, and the many hours I…
Read MoreLetter from the Guest Editor Abbie Skinner __________ Time flies and it crawls. Sometimes it stops and sometimes it simply slips away. If your year has been anything like mine, every month has begun with a perturbed, “How is it already April… August… October?” Time, ever present in our lives…
Read MoreTrick or Treat Don Raymond __________ You’ll only get so many of these; try to spend them wisely. Wisely or not, spend them you will: the clock ticks inevitably forward, and the seasons spill their colors across the trees, regardless of your choices. Try to make the best of this.…
Read MoreThe General Penny Nolte __________ A long time ago, Dad and his brother, who was the principal, found it hidden way underthe stage of our little school in upstate New York. They were scrounging around back there, nodoubt only because they could, and that’s when they hauled it out, this…
Read MoreDeposition Answer Fragments Jeffrey H. MacLachlan __________ Q: State your name.A: Mary Q: Are you on medication?A: Yes, citalopram and Q: Describe the night in question.A: Leaves were corpse-crisp and ticking Q: How long did you work for Camp Crystal Lake?A: Since I turned sixteen Q: Nothing happened those first…
Read Moreafter-midnight umbra Jill Kitchen __________ brick brownstone painted red on a busy avenue, top floor open to brooklyn sky. from the roof, a wovencityscape of other rooftops, other chimneys, the scent of tar. manhattan’s lower skyline small enough tohold in a hand, catch fireworks in july. spiral staircase a tremble…
Read MoreDay of the Dead Deron Eckert __________ All the witches tell me the veil is thin,but all I can see from this side of the veilare the jack-o’-lantern’s innards coatedin a piceous film of speckled mold. Thisformerly spherical fellow’s eyes are windowsto a shallow void of nothingness. Supposeit’s not nothingness.…
Read MoreThe Ticking Clock Joseph L. Bensinger __________ The clock repeats its iron song,its pendulum a patient blade.The hours march, unbroken, strong,through shadow’s hush and daylight’s fade. Yet something waits between each chime,a silence thick, a breath held fast.The pause extends, distorting time,as if the next might be the last. Each…
Read MoreA Capital Idea Abbie Doll __________ We hopped on the bus with a tremendous buzz in the air—this collective hum hovering there—accompanied by that marvelous jailbreak feeling only a field trip can bring. The chaperones stood at the front clutching their clipboards as they stumbled through rollcall, attempting to chisel…
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