Zhanna Slor Yes, English, Birthday For months, in kindergarten, all I do is cry. My grandpa drops me off at the closest Hebrew school in Milwaukee and from the second he leaves until the moment he returns, it’s about the only thing I do. We’ve just moved from the Soviet Union, and I don’t […]
Anthony Veasna So Manchester Street I want to give you, everyone in my audience, some words of advice. Never eat twenty dollars worth of fast food at 4 P.M. and then immediately take a nap when it is 104 degrees outside, because I when I did that, I had an absolutely fucked up dream. […]
Eshani Surya The Day Before the Funeral This week, we keep four kinds of milk in the fridge. Dad drinks half-and-half in his coffee; the kids take glasses of 1% before school; like me, Mom wants non-fat for her cereal; my husband, Tom, needs almond milk, because lactose bothers his stomach. The milk fills […]
Rudy Ruiz No Splash In the Hills the sun is rising and the droplets of newborn dew still cling in slumber to the freshly mowed blades of verdant grass. Twin sable palms silently step forward out of the fading darkness as the sky shifts hues like the facets of a fickle gemstone turning in […]
Emily Skaja Elegy without a Single Tree I Can Save I’ve been standing all night in the woods near Necedah with your name etched in red on my tongue like a boxelder wing. Loss of life occurred at a specific hour, a certain day, we are told. No one was with you—how that weighs […]
Read More… from Emily Skaja, “Elegy without a Single Tree I Can Save” and “Elegy with Rabbits”
Kara Candito The Executioner’s Taking Off I would like just one season as polite as Wisconsin, like soaking forever in a hot bath while other people wage campaigns against assault weapons and capital punishment. One writes to ask if I’m ready for a fight. Another reminds me there are just twelve hours […]
Read More… from Kara Candito, “The Executioner’s Taking Off”
Sue William Silverman If the Girl Does Phone Sex Show me your bathroom faucet,I’ll show you my ripe pomegranate…I want to swallow your rice pudding and haveyou lick my pumpkin hollow.Bored, the girl filesfingernails painted the colorof commercial lust.Man after man,all night long, her brain spinsa different scriptfrom pouty lips. She doubtsany of her […]
Read More… from Sue William Silverman – “If the Girl Does Phone Sex”
Michael Bazzett Tongues Most people can already speakhurricane, given that it’s mostly howling rage and shares numerouscognates with the mother tongue. But sunlightis a quiet dialect where every word soundsalmost the same to the untuned eye. It is nativeonly to the green leavesthat devour it whole. ~ Michael Bazzett’s work has […]
Brian Clifton from The Introvert’s Guide to Dreams You stroke your daughter’s hair and pass over a lump in the center of her head. You brush her hair away to reveal her nose, her opened mouth. She inhales. You’ve made a tragic mistake. In go the flies that hung around the dark corners of […]
Read More… from Brian Clifton, “from The Introvert’s Guide to Dreams”
Brian D. Morrison A History of the Forklift It isn’t a quiet story, the forklift’s, but it carriesintermittent calm, idle between shifts at the factory,not revving or pivoting. Until the driver, who knows the sounds sparks make in gas-poweredengines, like the sounds driven through the necksof rifles before the louder bangs, ignites it. He […]
Read More… from Brian D. Morrison, “A History of the Forklift” and “A History of Pigs”
