Ricardo Moran __________ What I’m Thinking on October 25, 1986 Someone said they saw Sigmund the Sea Monster waddlingon Imperial Avenue just over the railroad tracksnear the Winchell’s Donut House.Janet Jackson’s “Nasty” bumping on the Mighty 690,but it was just prima chasing the paleterodressed like a mermaid for Halloween. And…
Read MoreDustin Brookshire __________ Drifting Villanelle a collaborative, contoured villanelle using W.H. Auden’s “If I Could Tell You”,written with Joshua Barnes Tomorrow is Monday. Say it ain’t so!But there are, unfortunately, bills to payand so much in this world that I don’t know. I could tell you; instead, let me showhow…
Read MoreGradually She Finds Her Voice John Janelle Backman __________ SuffocatinginherenoroomtotwitchevenbetweenheartlungsdiggingofribsmustgetOUT Mr. Johnson held open his pre-calculus lesson planner, which listed all the assignments for the year, and his finger stabbed at a column mostly of blanks. “See? Here, here, twice that week, here again…John, you’ve missed a ton of homework,”…
Read MoreOnset Gender Dysphoria Meets Quarter Life Crisis Talon Drake __________ I am twenty-six / and sometimes forget / I no longer have to fear the girls on thebasketball team / who hurled out slurs from their seats / in fact they would fear me / my burlyphysique / but there’s…
Read MoreOn Eldering Clayton H Eccard __________ Recently someone called me an elder, as if I’d crossed the finish line of a race I never agreed to run. “One of our elders,” they said—like a museum piece with a pulse. I’m still discovering what that word asks of me. It’s not…
Read MoreWe Gathered Them by Hand Awen Fenwick __________ We came up from the subway.Color hit the eyes. The Mall disappeared under thousands of panels.Names snapped in the wind. Some held photographs.Some were weighted downwith stuffed animals. Some werea name,two dates. I was nineteen,my first flagstill pinnedto my backpack.Those I had…
Read MoreThe Wind Blows heavy Lila-Josey James __________ I look through the transom with two coffees in hand. There’s a pink in the clouds like peaches. We spin out the polished revolving door, and are emptied onto the street. The crosswind hits Marie in the face while brushing past me. Immediately,…
Read MoreJelly Roll Pride Abigail Bentz-Stevens __________ __________ Abby Stevens is a life long artist with a penchant for pen and ink, nature and chaos. There is a reason she uses the handle Chaos and Chlorophyll. Her art is greatly influenced by her ADHD and the noise in her brain and…
Read MoreOn Death & Dating Morgan Rose-Marie __________ It is fall 2016. The single, sky-blue folder sitting in the top-right corner of my desktop antagonizes me. The white letters of its title spell “Megan”—the name of one of my closest friends. I met her at work—she taught biology in the classroom…
Read MoreComing Out Kale Hensley __________ __________ Kale Hensley is a poet and visual artist from West Virginia. Their writing has appeared in Gulf Coast, Booth, Evergreen Review, Image, and Sonora Review. They were selected by Adele Elise Williams as the recipient of the 2026 Elmer Kelton Prize for Poetry and…
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