Online Issues
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Buying Cigarettes For My Dead Mother
“Hearts” collage by Tiffany Dugan
by Cynthia Robinson Young
In a time when no one would suspect a child of buying cigarettes for themselves,
a time when Ray-Ray was called limp-wristed behind his back and meaner things were said to his face, and no one ever felt the need to apologize,
but who was loved anyway because he could sing Lazarus out of his grave at church on Sunday morning, and stand on any stage and compete with anyone at Amateur Night at the Apollo in Harlem, -
Magus: A Tribute in Poetry and Film to Donald Miller
by Vanessa Skantze
for Donald Miller guitarist extraordinaire
You brought the sea.
You brought the sea.
Where there was an arid space I sought to infect and encompass;
with words and sound and tensile fighting form–
I and I alone, making a world in a realm of affliction.
Of countless bars not reached.
I had no trust that space was waiting for me and that something could hold me, join me,
allow me a place to,
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Flesh and Bone: Five Prose Poems
"Listen to Silence" collage by Tiffany Dugan
by Lara Chamoun
The Scar
Before the cave drawings spoke your name and the bones beneath your skin began to hum, there was the scar. Before your mother’s hands became tools of excavation, unearthing splinters from your flesh; before the empty spaces between the stars at night began to stretch and sag with the weight of the things you forgot, like that favourite toy ball you lost, there was the scar. You trace its rough edges in your flesh, its ridge a worn fossil,
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Leather Jacket
"Primarily Black and White" collage by Tiffany Dugan
by Sarah Seybold
In eighth grade, I ached for a leather jacket. The kind the popular people wore. A brown bomber with a world map lining the inside.
I saved for months, nearly a year. Babysitting money from the single mom down the road. Long hours after school, changing her toddler’s poopy diapers and chasing her two little girls whose hands were stinky from Cheez Whiz. Their small, musty house even messier than my own cluttered trailer. Occasional weekend jobs in town for the Air Force major and his wife.
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safe search and doll house fire
"Snake Vine and Flowers" collage by Tiffany Dugan
By Robin Gow
safe search
i took my eel for a walk & that was the end.
all i could see were horror windows
& adds for single men 100ft away.
the internet has a plastic mouth. i put
training wheels on my eyes. tried to watch
my same monster videos & they were
blocked, replaced with video
of everyday disaster like froot loops.
the eel died from lack of water & -
The Hedonists’ Checklists
"Favourable" painting by Michael Moreth
by Daniel Speechly
It started with galbi-jjim.
We ladled the savory stew onto our rice and into our mouths; it tasted of life itself: browned beef-ribs, carrot, potato, radish, pyogo mushroom, garlic, and jujube brought together in a simmering pot brimming with sugar and soy.
The glistening ribs plucked from the broth were like revelation precariously grasped between our chopsticks. With our first bites the world bared its soul, showing us possibilities we had never considered.
