Marcella eve at dawn, a womandrags herself through cobbled alleyswailing, and then beginsover a plate of dry eggsto speak and from the doorway of a key shop, a manwith no teeth yells at a plazaof tables and chairs, and smokes so mucha rain-cloud forms over Los Angeles and the drinking fountain in the plaza becomesa […]
Daniel clark This is how… We read the signs. We readthe gaps around the signsthat said STOP. We filled in forgiveness. We sawourselves inside the bottle. We splashedwater on our faces but the water was wineand our faces grapescrushed into bottlesin crates in lorriesin toddlers’ hands. We racedaround the plastic track. We smashedglass to pass […]
C.E. Brady Yeah, put the leftovers in one of the jars on the second shelf;no, I know there’s a lid that fits, I promiseI’m working on a new organization system for the pile up there,what a mess! I need to learn how to let goof every exponential almond butter jar I am compelled to keeplike, […]
Jason Melvin the wind from the oceanmakes the balcony lawn chairsdanceI lounge on a couchas gray daylight stretchesthrough the sliding glass door I want to sitout therehear the surftaste the windbut I can’t writein the rain the balcony parapetis four feet highfrom my seatit’s only four inchesmy forefinger and thumbcan pinch itand the oceanbroken up […]
GIA KELLIHER 0b1. hey, I know you! you lolling Jell-o eyes, your eyelids are heavy you spit a billion more phrases, you’re summoning mandelbrot, your shed is a rube machine, it whirrs and molts, you don’t sleep through the night, your sermons are petsmart, full of ferret bones your nightly dream, a boor girl, her tunnels feel like astroturf, she peeks at you through Bavarian mist, she […]
Cole Henry Forster I’m listening to Gerry Raffertyand I’m thinking to myself,who the fuck is Gerry Rafferty,and what the fuck is “Right Down the Line?”‘Cause I can’t tell who’s sore,and there’s no rippin’ off the bandaidwith the first big scene,you gotta drag it out and feel that onefor a year or two, and thentake the […]
Keagan Wheat Logan unpacks needles, swabs, syringe, bandaidI settle my knee against his thighAs we sit on his Star Wars comforter.He plays Elton John, tiny speakerscompleting ritual. _______ Alone, I track 26 minute walkwith sagging backpackHawthorne, Montrose,Westheimer. Findingacorns to slow footfall, brief floatturns to stomp.With cars’ isolatingwind and shifting curb along,I reach my new pharmacy. […]
Stan Galloway Your names toll in my dreams. “26,” – Rachel Eliza Griffiths I do not know your names your faces.The photograph shows you beside the war monumentreminding me that time has circled back upon itself how tanks have driven out of our grandfathers’ memories.I do not know your names.The newspaper tells more than I can see of your clothing snug […]
D.W. White Tomorrow knocks againSo patientlyCarrying the pain of her childrenAnd asking us to let her inFor she is a solitary travelerWith only one door to try D.W. White is a graduate of the M.F.A. Creative Writing program at Otis College in Los Angeles and Stony Brook University’s BookEnds Fellowship. Currently seeking representation for his […]
Rachel Alarcio The world is my mother and Mother is a witch,she says, a psychological horror protagonistwalled in, exit forbidden sans consent.Lest the teen princess be exiled. The hearth is ravenous, cavernous,cold as the word no.The screen is her ladder,her savior. Purveyor of Prose. Playground Pariah.These epithets? Remnants of rejection.The prince in print is amber […]