Deposition 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 More“Boo”din: The Ticking Clock, Oct ’25 Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing Editor: Taryn White Associate Editor: Leah Joseph Assistant Editors: Robbie Hess and Jade Turner Intern: Margaret Brantley Laura Jacob, “The Ticking Clock” Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson Letter from the Guest Editor by Abbie Skinner Skinner…
Read MoreEivind E. Olsen __________ Thin Leaf On a winter day, much like a day in fallexcept the trees are bare, I find a leafblown up from the yard, thin as a thumbprintand slightly larger than my own. Its brown skin is cracked and translucent:a ghost against a stone step;or a…
Read MoreHeard and not heard at my grandmother’s wake Jordan Nishkian __________ We pretend to bury her.“Here, eat something.” In two weeks, we’ll pick up my grandmother’s ashes, her urn will join my grandfather’s in their nightstands, in their bedroom. My aunt“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying.” will sleep beside them: both room, tomb.“It’s good…
Read MoreNancy Carol Moody __________ Blue Wheelchair Come, Blue Chair.Come like a dream, a month’s second moon,water-wrapped planet, September’s stone.Cornflowers and summer-time berries and sky the waywe were promised it would always be.Come, Blue Chair.Who cares what you’re made ofor what it is you really are—four rickety wheels or rusty running…
Read MoreDonna J. Gelagotis Lee __________ Redefinition An adopted country lends, and demandsa down payment, which is your initiation. Language rolls on the tongue and slipsinto memory. It carries with it a past new to you.You believe in the future because it has not yet come.All the colors of the country:…
Read MoreBack then, they let us sift through broken glass Jean Janicke __________ and called it arts and crafts. Blue meant midnightgravel crunch under pick-up truck tires. Swirls could bewet sand drizzled on a sandcastle before waves washedthe turrets away. Grey lines like pencil stripes of witch-broombare branches guarding the post…
Read More