Anastasia Stelse __________ Contents Most people don’t realize the stomach’spower, don’t consider it when contemplatingmurder. Forensic science has madeleaps—delving into a five hundredyear old bog body’s leathery purse—nuts, fruits, meats—we can pinpointregion, season, how long after eatingdeath occurred. We can get evencloser with the newly dead. Solidifya time of death…
Read MoreHats Off to (Marcelino) Bernal Jose Oseguera __________ We jumped out of our seatsAs high as our Nike Airs allowed us,And yelled Viva MéxicoIn spite of being reprimandedBy our teacher not to speakSpanish in the classroom,Even though it was technically recess. “El pinche indio BernalScored a hell of a goalOn…
Read MoreMicki Blenkush __________ What I Mean When I Say I’m Polishing My Glass Ball Collection Hold your anger out at arm’s length and look at it, as if it were a glass ball.Then add it to your glass ball collection. – Ron Padgett I mean the differencebetween the word light…
Read MoreRomeo Oriogun __________ Exile There’s a place I was given,A horse with its broken legs.Lord, I tend to this brief thing called life like a manCaring for a beast that eats what it loves.I can’t help this loneliness of people walking away from my eyes,It is how a city knows…
Read MoreAn Afternoon Is a Test of Faith and I am Gone Again (After The X-Files) E. Kristin Anderson __________ I confess this sin: I have accepted the beast in me. And I want it to rain.Hard. Like you, Dana Scully, I’m angry at God and in absence of Godthe universe. …
Read MoreA.M. Brant __________ Mermaid Glisten, water glow, on tailof scales of gold. Siren songrising over the mountaintoptown. Candle woman sun up.She is calling to you. Can you hearher song? She is dancing on the Ohio,her arms open, her breasts open,eyes open, mouth loud. She is callingto you, listen now. She…
Read MoreHappiness in the Face of Bipolar Disorder Sean L Corbin __________ And you worry that this warmth you feel on your shouldersthis undeniable fullness in the crook of your arm this dusted-off upward bend at the corner of your mouth you worry that thisis merely an imaginary friend pushing your…
Read MoreDarker Truths: An Interview with Denise Duhamel Andrew Wittstadt __________ Last winter I was able to interview Denise Duhamel, who has three poems in our new print issue, to talk about all things poetry. It was a real treat to be able to ask these questions and hear the responses…
Read MoreHappy Anniversary, Darling Mary Hanrahan __________ In the beginning there was flight, A clear blue owning the horizon. And within, _____a V of geese, an arrow determined to head in the same direction. * 10,950 mornings later, in our rounded bodies, in the same sorry chairs, we settle. * You…
Read MoreDavid Kirby __________ The Demimonde I’m not so much walking as tilting a little to the left and fallingforward and then tilting to the right by way of compensation …
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