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Christ & Lucifer Share Cacio e Pepe on Arthur Avenue

Christ & Lucifer Share Cacio e Pepe on Arthur Avenue Maureen Martinez __________ …seize it with both hands and make the most of it. – Al Capone There’s a notorious Italian restaurant on a corner of Arthur Avenue in the Bronx where an infamous mob boss was shot in the…

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Our Day of the Dead & Vanilla Kipfel

Our Day of the Dead & Vanilla Kipfel Steven Luria Ablon __________ Our Day of the Dead We bring bacon and peanut butter sandwiches,root beer floats, fried catfish. We bringwiener schnitzel, food that our dead loved. We bring photos of friends and family,my grandmother sitting on a benchon the boardwalk…

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Cobbling Apples

Cobbling Apples Kim Malinowski __________ Do not peel your apple.It is a waste of time.Some vitamins mightsurvive to taste. Slice neatly.Quarter then quarterthen quarter.Cut out the core.Spit over your righthip and throw saltover your left shoulder.Do not cut yourself.Blood enhances lovenot flavor. Measure the maple syrup.1/3 cup. Then pour a…

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Boiled Down

Boiled Down Angela Townsend __________ I never have to eat a hard-boiled egg again. No adult of any species should even think these words. But you cannot betray yourself without philandering against language, and I have committed adultery. It seemed reasonable at the time. Reason wears stain-resistant shirts. All I…

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Last Thanksgiving

Last Thanksgiving Shirlee Jellum __________ Candles flickered on window sills and tables, golden light reflected on glass and polished wood, a warm welcome to family members arriving for the holiday feast. A centerpiece graced the dining room table—a handmade bouquet of crimson maple leaves, snowberries, rosehips and dried seedpods. Platters…

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in houses of stolen bones

in houses of stolen bones Peach Delphine __________ what remains what lives within our wordsours alone                   progress incremental visibility necessity we are not coin in your currency salt bartered flesh expendable bitches voices unfiltered rolling off Gulf                                                   tangle lightning  wash your greens in three watersfor luck                stem tear wash again progress        incremental clear onions bacon…

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Pièce de Résistance

Pièce de Résistance Jane Blanchard __________ I wondered if this gatheringWould prove a bit too challenging,But so far it is going fine—Or well enough—for me and mine.Once soft or stiffer drinks are gone,The potluck supper can move on.Our host serves seasoned roasted lamb;Our hostess offers glazed baked ham.The slightly stressful…

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The Stretch

The Stretch Mehreen Ahmed __________ Even if I were to bark up the wrong tree, so be it as long as I am barking something. I don’t know how to climb a tree. Wrongs can’t be right until a climb has ensued. I slide many times before I correct my…

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Rubus

Rubus Sara Gonzales-Rothi __________ Each drupelet an August delight. Borne of leaf litter, restored in frosty slumber, blossoming through the thaw, ripened in sun-bake. Betwixt pointer and thumb, then palate and tongue: delectable revelry. The morn stretches left. The eve, right. We find ourselves. Every need satisfied, here in the…

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Omelet & Her 77th

Omelet & Her 77th Michelle McMillan-Holifield __________ Omelet We broke eggs sloppily over a Corelle cup,that little 1977goblet whose greensweren’t leavesbut a censusof mossy splotches, whose pattern of small yolk-yellow flowers was as familiar and delicious a memory as the zingof mustard greensin a grandmother’ssweltering kitchen—her love villagewhere she prayedfor her salvationwhere she prayedfor her babieswhere…

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