Embezzeled Emotion

Catherine O’Brien If I say ‘I love you’ and you don’t say ‘I don’t love you’, I cry fraudulence, have we even […]

False Flat

Caroline Gonda It’s a thing in cycling, apparently, an incline you don’t recognise as one because it’s not that steep so you […]

Welcome to the Pixel Exhibition

Paul Thompson On screen you are an abstract masterpiece. I secretly take screenshots as we talk, print and rearrange them on my […]

The Things Sally Hardesty’s Best Friend, Pam, Never Speaks Of (CW: body horror)

Jan Stinchcomb               What it’s like to be the first, instead of the final, girl.               How it feels when your ass, […]

This Seagull

Richard Barr This seagull was bigger than my cat. Noticeably so. It was rush hour. All at once the people, so many […]

Osmosis

Shannon Frost Greenstein It doesn’t taste as bad as you would expect. I thought it would be like swallowing a mouthful of […]

I’m a Corpse Flower, and I’ve Got a Bone(r) to Pick with You, Botany

Shannon Frost Greenstein So. Botany. Let me just say it, right out loud, because it’s what everyone is already thinking, anyway. I’m […]

The Vanishing

Jared Beloff 1. The house went without a sound during Mrs. Thompson’s daily trip to the mailbox last fall, her back turned […]

Sirens

Jennifer Furner               Whenever I hear sirens, I think of Sister Liska, the older-than-dirt nun from my childhood parish (may she rest […]

The Side Show of Birth

Amy Barnes               I give birth to the longest baby ever on the longest day of the year. 144 inches. A gross […]

Clothesline Number 9

Amy Barnes               The sun dries my paintings where Mama can’t see me. I’m supposed to be doing chores but instead I’m […]

My Boyfriend’s Wife

Iona Rule When I’m with my boyfriend, who is also her husband, he serves me spaghetti in their pond green bowls. I […]

Untied

Al Kratz Skitter scattering critters of the ceiling, we’re trying to sleep around here. I guess boundaries and borders. I guess party […]

Babydoll

Sarah Jones               A moment of silence, please, for my missing left breast. For the spreading lumps bubbling through me. Ripping me […]

God knows what to do with our bed

Kik Lodge Down in Grignan, a man called Didier has a comfortable clic-clac. He’s a self-diagnosed poet and truffle-hunter, says all treasure […]

Long After the Long Ride into the Sunset

Marvin Shackelford First thing in the morning I draw a blue mark in the shallow dimple of my cheek, so near my […]

How A World-Famous Pianist Arrives At His Venue Where He Plays Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 In A Slightly Out-Of-Tune C Minor

Noémi Scheiring-Oláh               All I see are eyes, staring at us as we leave London Waterloo Station, carrying our heavy load across […]

The Man With the Moon

Sabina Wong               Little Ramon Huang was in love. His child’s mind too small for him to process this particular complexity, all […]

My Mother Was Once a Story

Sally Badawi Hijab wears my mother. Her jaw pinned smooth with pearls: convex mirrors refract evil blue eye. This is to orient […]

Two Needles, One Dog

Kev Thomas I asked to see the vet. I was holding Gaia in my arms. She was wrapped in my school coat, […]

The Other Mothers

Kelle Clarke               The early morning train passes swiftly through the thick trees below, sending her coffee mug jittering across the counter. […]

When the Organ Player from Schmitt Music Stops You After Your Shift on Holy Saturday to Say You’re Terribly Beautiful

Elizabeth Fletcher               You’re on the second-floor concourse when it happens. It’s one level up from the music store and neighboring one-hour […]

How to visit an Irish peninsula in the 1970s

Mary Byrne Take the long way around a coastal promontory on a Sunday afternoon. Floor the accelerator in vain when the clutch […]

Nobody Will Hear Them

David Hartley             Craig knows other Craig sneaks into his shed with his girlfriends. Craig knows other Craig thinks nobody will hear […]

Post Modern

A. Joseph Black Christ, he’s still there. I lean back out of view and catch the curtain with my shoulder. It sways […]

Candy-Striped and Candy-Stripped at Greenwood Leflore Hospital, During the Summer of Your 16^th Year

Exodus Oktavia Brownlow Candy Stripersspells a little too much like Candy Strippers.A uniform’s a uniform’s a uniform,and you are a peppermint-wrapped-paper sweet.When the […]

Wolf Song

Lisa DeCastro I am an onyx pearl Inside your shell Rolling on your tongue Swallowed Implanted A stone in the underbelly In […]

This is what happens when you go places:

Sidney Dritz In my head I’m still standing on that curb, night time in May, and my lips on your lips, airplanes […]