Untitled

Erica Charis

A mother’s tongue forges sounds into syllables blowing gently on the sparks of recognition, traveling from attentive ears to amazed eyes, lighting the fresh kindling in an old hearth. Moi, Dich, We. Embers radiate beneath the newer wood giving energy,…

first/last

Paige Chaplin

i can only picture this now: your starfish body melting into stale bedsheets alone. when once, underneath the same collapsible cotton roof, we loved each other for the first time. i cannot say i remember how it felt when you…

The Pain of Creation

Emmett Ceglia

My baptism had no business with fire It was my creation that was in a holocaust The womb from which I was expelled Rooted me in the unholy churning of the center of the earth In conflagration flame, I was…

Sonnet 23

Jordan Casty

The moon is only good for hanging hats. It’s lost whatever magic songs it played And now it’s just a night-light for the rats. A whisper in a monstrously loud parade. The sun is just a joker in the sky,…

In Her Own Time

Inés Velasco

The house was quiet went she went in. Isabelle remembered how much she loved going to that house with her parents when she was still a kid. Forty-five minutes away from Chicago, the “lake house,” as she called it, had…

The Lion Boy

Chris Stites

It’s not easy balancing school with drinking binges that last for days. I struggle to remember things and often feel sick. My black cat, Daisy, sits and stares out the window. I try to drink myself into breaking it. But…

Three Words

James Sanderson

Inside Howard’s wool coat pocket was a letter. The letter started and ended with the same three words. The three words became a mantra to Howard, one he would repeat while he looked at his haggard face in the mirror…

Beacon

Kathleen Parks

The phone buzzed, and Kitty looked down at it vibrating on her thigh. While sitting in her family’s living room an incoming message on her rickety old cellphone read, “Hey! My friend, Travis, and I are going to drive over…

In Which the Time Passes

Alexandra Groff

An old man sat in his rocking chair, his face stuck in an uncomfortable looking frown. He pushed his slipper-covered feet against the hardwood floor, occasionally slipping, but he paid no attention to it as the crick and creek of…

Childhood

Andrew Choi

They say that when a person dies, his life flashes before his eyes. Well, my life hasn’t flashed before my eyes. I’m not dead yet. I’m trying to think of all the possible reasons why this could or would have…