Life in ABCs Tanya Sangpun Thamkruphat __________ A blossom-eyed child, doled elephantine fumbles, growls harrumphs in jest; keeps loving magnanimously; noshes (obviously); pooh-poohs quotidian rabble-rousers; somersaults terrifically; understands vileness weaponizes; & x-claims YOLO zealously. __________ Tanya Sangpun Thamkruphat is a Thai-Vietnamese American poet and essayist. She’s the author of Em(body)ment of…

On the Shelf Susan Isla Tepper __________ This container is somewhat larger than my last one, this one is glass on all sides which gives me a perfect view of everyone coming and going, who is kissing who and believes it’s in private, the groping, the skirt coming up, trousers…

Kiss and Tell Jessica B. Sokol __________ Chipperly, lovingly, I tried to peck a buddy’s partner on the lips, and later that night they irately texted their disapproval which showed me the epitome of Connecticut. __________ Jessica B. Sokol writes scandalous creative nonfiction. She’s the author of For Better And Worse: Short Stories…

Season of Silence Mandira Pattnaik __________ Under the cloudy shadows mocking a deeply furrowed farmland, flies a kite feeble against the openness, yellow-and-maroon upon azure, hoping to soar over pockmarked walls and ruined island fortresses, in the kingdom of hawks and seagulls, the power of wind on the scrap of…

Trampoline Lynn Mundell __________ They’re at Jimmy and Leila’s recommitment ceremony, jumping up and down like cartoon kangaroos on the kids’ backyard trampoline, and it’s just like it used to be, years ago, at her place, their moms hanging out the kitchen window, smoking cigs like twin dragons, yelling be…

Name in the Sand Divyank J __________ The water cut the sand and went back to the ocean, erasing our names. __________ Divyank J is a writer from Udaipur, India. He has been featured in several anthologies, journals and magazines such as Notions of Living, Notions of Healing, Chariots of…

Overlapping Definitions of Infinity Carol Dorf __________ In childhood infinite time is waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen – when reaching the moment of the dripping ice cream cone takes one forever two forevers three forevers more – while in adult life there is the infinity between…

Blue Laws Amy Barnes __________ The milk that Ellie still expresses, ounce by precious ounce – is so translucent that it’s almost Delft or sky azure, a faint hint of color glowing like radioactive, futile tactile milk, the liquid of a failed, but obedient woman – the kind that observes…

The Wasteland Prosper C. Ìféányí __________ And then Astrid, after being asked by his children for the umpteenth time what fate was, sculpted an imaginary face from the innermost thickness of a smoke rising skywards from the great wasteland, and said: there is life, and then there is death, what happens…