Fiction from Claire Polders
Photo: Ray Fragapane Looking for a Place to Die My memories and I sleepwalk into town, arm in arm, down the street of black stockings and long skirts, our flat heels click-clacking on the cobblestones. We pass the hat shop with its window of false promises behind which forgotten heroines change into child brides before […]
Poetry from Sydney Sheltz-Kempf
Photo: Hanjörg Scherzer Legacy My Mother’s legacy taught me how to see in color: blood meandering down my leg as she placed society’s razor in a child’s hand, bride-in-training to hack away anything that didn’t belong in a man’s vision of woman that drifted—still years away— like blue-kissed smoke rings from a home set aflame, […]
Nonfiction from Candice Kelsey
Photo: Alexas Fotos Puzzling Things No hatreds are so keen as those of love. – Propertius They called me Fats. Older brothers have a knack for affectionate nicknames. But it was the 80s, and sensitivity hadn’t quite made its appearance onto the cultural scene. For some reason they referred to each other as Gay Boy. […]
Poetry from Lisa Wence Connors
Cicadas’ Hymn Sun staggers, dragging dusk The cicadas’ hymn fills the void — wild against calm, dry air A song, not of gratitude, joy but prompt resignation — short life of devoted suffering No song of biological Bacchanalia only droning duty as buds close for night They become husks – passed into genetic afterlife of […]
Nonfiction from Marisa Crane
Photo: Victor Garcia Predictions for a Skeptic you will watch romantic films & witness couples dancing in the kitchen or living room or even in the bathroom & you will shout DO PEOPLE REALLY DO THAT? & the actors will stop what they’re doing, turn around, bend over, & moon you & you will slip […]
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