April 14, 2023 | Nonfiction
Let’s Take a Selfie
Wild Card
His white face is red. Mom taught me that people turn red like tomatoes when they’re drunk. I look around and see pink and red faces all around me.
April 14, 2023 | Trip Reports
Vibe Check From God
md wheatley
I was telling stories. I was enjoying music. I was proselytizing. I was observing.
Quiet, Silent, Beautiful
Autumn Christian
She was the sudden presence that filled the delivery room like a creation spirit pressing his thumb to make a wrinkle in space.
Inscriptions from Ghislaine Maxwell's Prison Cell
René Bennett
The body rotates its symbols / like a stereoscope
Fun Can Kill You
Ariel Courage
I fall asleep on the First Date. It happens when we're cresting the chain hill of a roller coaster called Sallie Mae.
The Sex Lives of Parents in the Time of School Shootings
Laura Jean Baker
Sex would remain forever yoked to this school shooting, grief combined with an uncanny moment of clarity: life won’t be the same after this, regardless.
The Ogre
Gabriel Hart
When he stands in the living room fully erect, wearing nothing but blue corduroy shorts cut off so high the pockets peek out, he holds a bicycle chain lock above his head victoriously, like a sword from stone; a makeshift weapon, we can see it’s stained with another man’s blood.
Written on the Wall of an Invisible Temple While Brimming with Love
Patrick Kosiewicz
I’m flinging sparks at a desk
in the cold cell of civilization’s midnight
The Elevator
Ivan Kenneally
When I was ten years old something happened, an event I never understood
How I Got my Hair Back
Colene Lee
I've finished packing and am leaving. Ten, nine, eight, seven . . . .
His mind was a country I wanted to be lost in
Jennifer Robin
PS: My computer is really going nuts. If I can use one of your spare ones, I may need it sooner rather than later.
The Third
Lizzy Lemieux
Sophie had recently gone through a break up. I don’t remember her ex's name. I do remember the striking legibility of the word VIOLENCE.
Three Poems
Lauren Ireland
I am torn with longing for many unnameable things.
The First 900
Carson Pytell
I wasn't surprised that he told me he used to skate, everyone did, but it felt like I did take a bump when he told me I must be my father's son.
In Praise of Burning Books
Chris R. Morgan
there was nothing special in the Library of Alexandria
Free Will and Determinism at a School for Disturbed Children
J.J. Marks
One day at the school for disturbed children I attended, a boy lit his pubes on fire.
Black Girl Magic
Kyle Kirshbom
There’s something so sexy about a hot girl apologizing for my behavior.
The Hunter
Laughlin Cole
The first thing I killed was a coyote. Grandpa pointed out that the coyote was a mother. Her belly sagged a few inches above the grass. Her front right leg caught in a wire trap. Grandpa handed me his
Toothbrush Horror Story
Greta Rainbow
Toothpaste dripped and stained the rubber grip. The bristles were yellowed, fanned out and frayed, like a spiky cleaning tool that should go nowhere near the mouth. Some of the bristles were actually hairs.
We Talked to Scientists About Desire
Kathleen Radigan
At night, we lay on unmoored mattresses, pressing hands over our eyes to block out spears of light from the street. We cursed our naked windows.
The Secret
Mohammad Rafiq
What the Mother wanted to show us might be different from what we wanted to see.
2 Fictions
Katie Gene Friedman
“My grandma drinks that,” the kid ahead of me at Duane Reade snarks at my six-pack of Ensure bottles.
A Rogue Job
Stephanie Sellars
My fantasy of Lockwood started to deflate like a balloon with a tiny hole.