Issue 35
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Gravity
by Lisa McMaster
photo by Peter Anderson on Unsplash
It’s a dark November evening and the rain slants across the driveway and backyard. My mom and I have just returned from my piano lesson and I am in a good mood. I am singing something silly when I see my dad sitting at the dining room table, his face drawn tight, eyes down. I keep singing because he often doesn’t smile, or say hello, when I walk into the room. When he tells me to stop, his voice is sharp and I assume I have done something wrong.
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Woman Encounters Haystack
by Erika Mailman
photo by Adrian Bancu on Pexels
It was from another century
It made her feel broken
it hissed of cows and ploughsharesMen who didn’t have time
to talk to their womenfolk
who were sick with shameif they burned dinner for
no one ate and the cow
was dishonored.The straw spoke
of how night would claim
them all if the womantold her desire to make art,
of her dispute with the cast
iron stove, -
Aubade For The Sous Chef At Cochon
By Nikki Ummel
photo by Wicdhemein One on Pexels
You are Orion and I am pulled close,
to lick the salt from your ears.
WWOZ whispers morning news
as my fingertips chase freckles,
play connect-the-dots, search
your kitchen-scars for constellations
as the sun rises.I like the feel of you.
Here, in the damp darkness
of your shithole apartment,
the handprints of others
on the wall, above your bed.I’m not the first hostess
you’ve hunted—there is
a bottle of Wet Head, -
BETWEEN THE ACTS
by Elinora Westfall
art "Untitled Portrait" by Elinora Westfall
Act One
Royal Court, London
Front row, middle seat tickets, for The Cane
Red velvet chairs
And I can’t see my feet, in the dark, but I can hear the sound
Of theatre
Of the side stepped shuffle between seats, and sweets and everyone else’s coats on the arms of chairs
Of whispers and hushes and the creak of Victorian floorboards between the clink of wine glasses
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When I Was Young, My Future
by Michelle Hulan
photo by Tala Dursun Marko on Unsplash
When I was young, my future
was as sure as static on the screen.There were backs arching. A woman’s hand
reaching past shadows. Torsostethered to no discernable plot. I felt my way
toward desire blindfolded in a humof bees. Sometimes I bang my fists against sheet metal
just to hear its sound hit walls and return as echo—My past always has the last word,
but I never met a future I didn’t like. -
And If We’d Kept Our Daughter, We’d Have Named Her Lille
By Brent Schaeffer
art curtesy of The University of Chicago on Unsplash
When we got off the train in Paris it was late.
Gare Du Nord looked like a Monet: black
and gray with strokes of gloss. We were lost.
Athena and I slipped into backpacker backpacks and set out
across the city. I had to piss. Like ugly Americans
we stopped at McDonald’s, my ankles killing me,
… We were broke. We took another train north,
hoping it’d be cheaper than Paris. It was.
We got a room for a week—fucked and ate kebabs
from a taco truck thing—just like L.A.—
but colder and somehow romantic.