My Brief Life as a Dean Jennifer Lagier __________ Night One: a man beats his child in the parking lot. I phone the police, an ambulance, child protective services, our security guards. Night Two: across the street, gang-bangers shoot a man as he stands on his lawn. I phone the…
Read MoreThe Building Manager Lora Keller __________ When their Schwinns and Toyotas slink out the drive, I haunt their burrows. I thaw her sibilance with a comma splash and one tangled ampersand. His easel creaks as I dab fuschia, his sunset now inferno. I thread golden floss and scatter a spray…
Read MoreWhy Hawks Make Bad Bosses Jean Janicke __________ Circling on thermals dark suits and auburn feathers soar above pay grades. Their shadows darken cubicles. A high-pitched descending keeeeer freezes fingers over keyboards. They leave one small wing on the floor near the printer, prey partly eaten. __________ Jean Janicke spends…
Read MoreFrom the Back of the Room Mary Buchinger __________ Faculty Meeting No. 11 It’s the Dolphin standing on his tail waving his flippers. “Assessment” says this pet—“This is our task for this year!” Oh the ball of unreality, how it lights on his nose, and rises like an example. The…
Read MoreWorkplace: Wounds and Woes ’24 Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing Editor: Karris Rae Assistant Editors: Taryn White, Meilyn Woods Esther Courville, “Life Sentence,” photograph Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson Letter from the Guest Editor by Karris Rae Prose “Undercover Boss” by Carly Diaz “The Company Man” by…
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 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…
Read MoreAncestral Bed William Miller __________ In the country, there were fewand no one ever slept alone. A strawor chicken-feather mattress was for lean,tired men home from the field,the time between “cain’t see and cain’t see”,for women with hands burned by lye soap,feet blistered by bad ill-fitting shoes.Babies were born there,…
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