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Stuck at Siple Dome
by Char Gardner “We did not come here to study the climate of Antarctica. We are here because this is where the information is stored.”—Kendrick Taylor, PhD Desert Research Institute January 6, 1997Four a.m. Desperate to pee. Cold darkness all around. Muffled bovine sounds of ten sleeping men snoring in this Jamesway hut (a Quonset…
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I Second Guess Religion in Place of Humanity
by Nnadi Samuel Ma is unrehearsed mayhem:vendor of uppercut & jawbreaking kicks.attacks with both twins strapped to her back.infamous for pulling off wigs at the market place. she that volatile. though gentle, if a brawl profitsor leaves her littlun in safer hands. Ma tells me ‘stay’,tells me, I wasn’t raised to demand from the government…
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after afterimages
by Mack Rogers when you were a kid you played too many video games & the pixels got stuck in your eyes. your mother told you stop staring at them screens so much, boy. & you tried to stop but it got worse when you played less & played more. they came from the television…
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It’s so Quiet
by Dmitry Blizniuk The darkness thickens diagonallyas if someone plays Paganini’s caprice on the violinwithout strings, without lacquered cartilages,without hands or a bow,on the pure vibrating clot of shadows.I want to come to the open windowand take a big lump of the blue sky,dazzling bright, cooling down, with my bare hands.Anti-evening.An anti-moth flies into the light…
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You ask me to cut your dreadlock in half
by Shana Hill When you turn forty-six, I halve it with a blunt scissorI dread history, thick like the rings of a treeWhen you were sixteen, I was lonely for you sisterWhen you turn forty-six, I have you with a blunt scissorIt smells like children running, the lock on the floorI stare into its mustard…
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Of Shame Withheld, Apocryphal
by Tuhin Bhowal Already my belly looks like something to tolerate. The navel; a wormhole —head of figs when plucked raw. Golden beard lacing only the left side of My face. Burgundy, huh, says the barber before touching, one more time after the trim,his scissor-hands paying attention, like an average mind to an anomaly. Ballslarge…
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Umunna
by Tobenna Nwosu Pitchforked mermaids and seahorses ripple in Ezinne’s blouse as she ambles to the grove. I trail her, my legs thinning and bending at improbable angles. Her pillar skirt throws off the sinking light strand by strand. Ivory disks tug her earlobes into corkscrews. Pines unfurl from us, the forest bed a skull…
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Big Cats
by Drew Nelles OUT OF THE BOTTLE “You know I’ve never been catcalled?” Asuka said. “Walking down the street or whatever, past a construction site—never.” “I saw the strangest thing today,” I said. “I walked by a man holding an entire peeled banana in his hand. He was talking on the phone and holding a peeled banana.…
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The Showerlier
by Maggie Slater Dylan Brooks was a shower connoisseur. After thirteen years in the medical field, Dylan realized he hated his job, hated the system, and wanted more than anything to do something he enjoyed. Dylan loved taking showers. So he quit, moved to a smaller apartment in a cheaper part of town, and set…
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Messages to Animal Mothers
by Jennifer Case I.Message to the Tamarin Mother When you have a child and sense you do not have enough community support for that child—that 8 oz. ball of sinew and soft fur clutching the hair on your shoulder—you do not stop yourself or judge yourself or say, what will others think? You do not…
