Four Walls Michael Martone __________ Mont-Saint-Michel France The island was fortified in 1256, resisting the sieges of the Hundred Years War. During the German occupation of France, the island was a major tourist destination for the Germans, a half million visited the island over the four years. A single American…
Read MoreA World Is a World Is a World & Guernica, and then some Sam Rasnake __________ A World Is a World Is a World – after Cobb’s Barns and Distant Houses (1931), painting by Edward Hopper I remember the world Hopper paintedMy Saturdays, toys in the closet besidethe cedar chest.…
Read MoreImagine: Summer II Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing Editor: Abbie Skinner Assistant Editors: Karris Rae, Aiman Tariq, Taryn White, Meilyn Woods Editorial Assistants: Mia Bonds, Alexandria Knight Sheila Squillante, Sun Shower, Acrylic ink and pen. __________ Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson A Goodbye Letter from the Managing…
Read Moretricky honey & A man of winter Kate Carsella __________ tricky honey You know what they say— We’re headed toward Selfish Times. Disunion. Good then, leave us. Let us part, he chose acrimony. Sunset and salt, daylight in between. Citation: They’ll let you choke on your own saliva on the…
Read MoreA Goodbye Letter from the Managing Editor Abbie Skinner __________ A little over two years ago, at the end of my first year of McNeese’s MFA program, everything was changing. The third year students I’d come to rely on for guidance and encouragement were graduating; Allie Mariano, the interim Fiction Director…
Read MoreLetter from the Editor Vallie Lynn Watson __________ Imagine all the People This issue marks a resounding whoop of an end to my first full calendar year at McNeese, and the collaborative effort behind this issue is woven of such lovely threads I will always treasure from my first year.…
Read MoreLast Rites Neil Connelly __________ Breathing In the movies when somebody dies, they always exhale, one long final sigh. But at my mother’s end, she just stopped. She inhaled and her chest rose up then froze. Still. For days, she had struggled to breath, wide-eyed and raspy, something wet and…
Read MoreReport: Skinny Monkeys Live Longer Steve Almond __________ All those sweet bubbes boiling knaidlach, those nonnas palming gnocchi andplump babushkas ladling borscht, bonneting the afternoons in schmaltz andsteam—all of them are murderers. Out in California, they believe you can live forever on the right diet:grapefruit, sunflower seeds, Sweet ‘N Low.…
Read MoreBald Eagle Taxes Tim Bass __________ The new guy showed up in a coat of black feathers and a giant hat with a long, fuzzy eagle’s beak sticking out of it. He wore yellow pants. “Weird,” Eric said. “Looks like something on Sesame Street,” Stevie P. said. Eric and Stevie…
Read MoreConfessions Travis Park __________ Beneath the soft glow of streetlights fading,A revelation whispers, threading through our ordinary world.The park, a familiar canvas, now painted with uncertainty.Her eyes, a mosaic of joy and quiet turmoil,Hold a story yet unfolded, veiled in their depths.The air, thick with the scent of anticipation,Leaves me…
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