Fiction from Eva Schlesinger

Fiction from Eva Schlesinger

The Cha Sisters THE CHA SISTERS’ hair shone like caramelized brown sugar. Their skin looked like they hung out under sun lamps, when, in fact, they ate five pounds of carrots every week. They drank chai tea, had a chinchilla and a Chow Chow, and liked to ride the choo choo train. They lived downstairs in […]

Two Poems by Rebecca Macijeski

Two Poems by Rebecca Macijeski

Death’s First Lesson Death’s small feet hang over the edge of the couch. Her grandmother teaches her to knit, feeding yarn between the needles, always working and passing. Death watches the loops of color slide along the machine of her grandmother’s hands. Soon a pattern generates, astonishing as a tumor or a shroud, and death’s […]

Nonfiction from Kristen M. Ploetz

Nonfiction from Kristen M. Ploetz

Pilgrimage “The number one thing that’s most similar among the different pilgrims on these different journeys in these different faiths is they’re all searching. It’s that they no longer want to just passively accept the religion, they want to be active in deciding what they believe.” –Nicola Menzie, The Christian Post JERUSALEM. Mecca. Char Dham. […]

Poetry from Lisa Folkmire

Poetry from Lisa Folkmire

Suburbia  The neighbor boy has hot boxed in his duct-taped Chevy again. The smell seeps through the window screen just as the whirrs of the highway envelop our home. Tires speeding past unfilled potholes, broken glass bottles, hidden cop cars. Across the street, four wheels stalled in the drive. Windows cracking now, they’re coming up […]

Two Poems from Lindsey Gilbert

Two Poems from Lindsey Gilbert

Whodunit House Two are striking: grandfather and mantel. The old clock rectifies the new clock’s brain. They’ll be bashing it out if we don’t intervene. We are the constable. Take out your notebook. Under this shade is a lamp with a switch: three clicks for full brightness. Find out where it’s going. Two fans: ceiling […]

Fiction from Matthew Serback

Fiction from Matthew Serback

You’re Telling Me Pro Wrestling Isn’t Real? (Part XVII) “And what you see before you is the greatest example of evolution that you will ever see.” – Triple H YOU HAD LEFT me there—all scrambled and intertwined with the wires of your television. There were black wires with green tips and white wires with blue […]

Three Fictions from Martin Keaveney

Three Fictions from Martin Keaveney

. Carcass Dead carcass sinks. We watch. Dragonfly passes. Old, worn, out. Out, worn, old. This is where it ends, the trees begin, the heat begins. This is where it began, where it ends. We don’t move through generations, don’t love through generations. Not like the boggy mess, twenty million in the ground. Use rings […]

Nonfiction from Jericho Parms

Nonfiction from Jericho Parms

Mummy AS A GIRL, I wrapped my mother’s resting body. Gathering jackets from the hall closet, scarves from her drawers, I lay them across her breast and snug around her torso. I reached for the plaid Irish blanket she kept on the futon and the orange afghan draped on a nearby rocking chair and covered […]

Three Poems from wren james

Three Poems from wren james

grandma’s house folded palms dance on the hood of the car. drive up to the attic and pull out the sun, drag it out of the house hold it like a host. i give it to you to swallow. it’s fine when we’re together. it drips out your eyes. it sounds out your mouth, but […]

Fiction from Elias Keller

Fiction from Elias Keller

Must Be the Location I JUST LOST another tenant: that’s five in as many years. Vicky’s Pet Shop, Shaya’s Healing Stones & Crystals, Alana’s Judaica Boutique, Mimi’s Party Supplies, Lisa’s Sports & Fitness—all out of business. But stores close all the time, for good reasons beyond anyone’s control: the economy, competition from big-boxes and online […]