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After the Accident
by Holly Karapetkova For weeksI walked without casting a shadowas though the sun knewto no longer count me among the living.My head grew fields of weeds. I stumbled down synapsesno longer familiar.It took hours to cross the living roomto the front door. The only open roads ledback to the site of the accident:if I moved…
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All They Take
by Laura Leigh Morris When the baby’s mouth closes over her nipple, Irene goes from half asleep to painfully awake. The chapped cracks in her areola come alive, and she whimpers. The baby snarfles and gasps as he suckles, a hungry little thing. Insatiable, Irene called him at his four-week-old appointment. The doctor nodded, said they…
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RUGS
by Jaydn DeWald Rolled out before us: a path of stain-resistant bronze. Tufted, hand-knotted, flat-woven, loomed. For walking across, bare- or sock-footed, holding a mug of warm milk. With viscose fringe. Geometric borders. Into which she would crush a tube of maroon lipstick. What patterns do you see? Map of sand dunes, map of riotous…
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What You Deserve
by Tina Mortimer The Achilles tendon rests between the calf and the heel. It’s the largest and strongest tendon in the body. It’s also the most vulnerable to injury due to its limited blood supply and the tension it endures when you flex your calf muscle. This is where M, your on-again, off-again high school…
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Pearl Divers
by Jane Feinsod And if collision and consumption are the same thing, then I willslam my body into those of the pearl divers. Yellow and red,bruised and sinking further, further— To go down for the harvest, to find nothing but barotrauma and anemptied-out vessel, to turn yellow and red, sometimes purple, thefurther down they go.…
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Broken Villanelle
by Shelby Handlerfor J, K, C & S I wish all my friends lived on the same block.If it snowed, we’d meet on the corner.I wish everyone made it out for a wintry walk. Everyone’s got a key to everyone’s locks,lets themself in, makes the fireplace warmer,invites all our friends who live down the block.…
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Feeding the Animals
by Hemmy So Of all the vegetables in her garden, Mijin loved the perilla leaves best because they required so little from her. No trimming, no garden bed cover, no precise watering schedule. Just sunshine and enough water to quench their thirst, and they produced delicious bounty. She’d miss them when she left for Korea,…
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A History of Suffocation
by Dylan McNulty-Holmes The first time I hear about Blue, it’s on the news. There are interviews with survivors—mostly their silhouettes, filling anonymous rooms with their stories. One woman appears on national breakfast TV, baring her shiny tear-strewn face for all to see. She tells the sympathetically frowning hosts how she woke up in an…
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A Woman’s Right to Choose
by Katarina Merlini It’s nearly pornographicto see the way she slapsthe melonsat 9:30 on a Saturday morning:hand winding back,palm connecting,fingers lingering,listening for a resonateka-THUNKor not dependingon the ripeness.The baby slung across her cheststares at me across her shoulder,shielded by a massof blonde waves.What is it thinking?What does it wantwith its small blue eyes,and small moist…
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Spending Sunday Throwing Rocks at Policemen
by Jerrod E. Bohn If poetry wasn’t yet invented & November excludedall candidates, I’d lie with you readingthe book between your legs while the cat flicks her tail to agitate dustthat once again settles in the scarbelow your left eyelid when you said you ran from tear gasbut somehow do not cringewhen my voice is…
