Author: Editor Team

By: Sam Atwood I lay here in post-existential bliss wait, noWhat’s the other one? coital Legs twined togetherTrickster, they saidI didn’t catch a name Eyes like a star at its zenithEach kiss like a knife across my skincaught up in the inexorable tide of being(I was a little drunk, okay?)They promised a night of pleasure…

By: Sam Atwood The stories I tell myself are reflected in your eyesHow beautiful, that after millenniaof resting on walls of cool dry cavesIn throats, in loins, in that rare momentwhere neurons fire just rightwe shaped youa story made manifest.Some days, I can’t help but echo youMost, though, I can’t hear your replyIn truth, you…

By: Cole Grennen And the Cardinal hits the window cries thrice in the meadow to haunt and thrill lies the window Shimmer and shill swings low remarkable in the meadow Rattling the bottles on the still my mother flutters, arms akimbo and the cardinal hits the window Dreary forlorn fount of want and will Bridesmaids…

Kicked Dog with Rabies By Cole Grennan Looking out the Window of my Dressing Room on my Wedding Day to See a Roman Catholic Funeral Procession By Cole Grennan

By: Cole Grennan My mother stopped loving me two days after her fifty-fifthbirthday. Like any other Tuesday, she got home late. The dark sky stoodon a precipice. Clouds covered the Sturgeon moon and all her friendlystars. Sweaty and tired from the Zumba class she taught, my mother puttogether a meal that we should have eaten…

By: Lesly Portugal I keep you like a most treasured secret,closely, obsessivelyand just for myself.furtive, stolen touchessoftly linger upon my skinas an unspoken love lettertraced upon my bodywith ink that only I can read.illicit conversations wrap around my mindlike stolen silk,it’s a blanket of beautiful and delicately subdued voicesa blanket of comfort againstthe scrutiny of…

Encounter 1: A Unified Sunday Morning By: Tonya McMillian The church is full today. It is as if we all are expecting a specialvisitation from the Holy Spirit in our lives. Everyone is praying, praising, singing, dancing, and rejoicing in the Lord, “Hallelujah!” Ironically, the sermon is titled “The Soon Coming of the Lord.” As…

By: Cole Grennan Sometimes I imagine myself a priest. Collared and chained tomy master’s back door, I wait diligently day in and day out. Sometimes,a stranger will come, staring over the tall gates wrapped in vines. Theyreach out a hand, offering salvation. Freedom, they whisper, temptationdripping from their cupped hands. They bring with them tools…

Fractured Psyche By: Helen Scullin Close your eyes, see a beautiful world!Deafening voices have silenced, dissolved.Horrors of that world will cease to resolve,Weave a new way with the borders unfurled.Close off your mind, live an unconscious dream!Ink blots in darkness as death drives your sleep,Repress the real till the limbo’s too steep,Nightmares in new worlds…

By: Tonya McMillian Growing up in a big city, raised by her father, Charles, andmother, Vonnie, with two siblings, her older brother, Christoph, andyounger sister, Kammie, did not negate that Anne felt all alone all thetime. Her earliest memory was between the ages of three and five. Herparents were fighting in the hall just outside…