References

MaryelizabethSeptember 19, 2023

One time Clay and Rob at the rental shop didn’t make me pay the late fee on some cross country skis and they said maybe instead you could bring us some cookies ...

Poetry0 Comments

Stiff Drinks in Key West

Erica ReidSeptember 13, 2023

—a pecha kucha à la Terrence Hayes      The airport in Key West maintains a bar at baggage claim. It is easy to tell which passengers are arriving ...

Poetry0 Comments

For Fuck’s Sake

Amy RothschildSeptember 11, 2023

“‘Everyone dies one day. Everyone. Even wolves. But not books. Not words. Words don’t die.’ --my son, 3, who is a lot smarter than I am” “Oh fuck off Rebecca ...

Poetry0 Comments

The Nature of Emoji Rabbits

Quinn WhiteSeptember 10, 2023

I dropped a white rabbit emoji at the hypnotist’s feet. He asked, Why rabbits? Days passed. I sent more rabbits. Why on my mind, loud Debussy, sunset, a sip...

Poetry0 Comments

I Danced with the Devil in the Pale Moonlight and All I Got Was This Lousy Shirt

Bre D'AlessioSeptember 8, 2023

Her hair was a cascading wave I thought I could climb. The way she threw her head back with laughter those strands enveloped her. It was her hands, though s...

Poetry0 Comments

Barbie at 50

Philip Dean WalkerSeptember 4, 2023

Her dream house doesn’t have a number. Just write 123. Put the letter in the pink plastic mailbox. She doesn’t open her door for anyone anymore. Not even th...

Poetry0 Comments

When Michael Jackson Sang Sweet and High

Dana RobbinsAugust 31, 2023

My new friend with the soft face and fluffy Afro sat next to me in French class. We were both nerds, bonded chatting about Elizabethan England, Did you know...

Poetry0 Comments

Watching the Apocalypse from Goodwill

Deborah BrownAugust 23, 2023

The sky is vomit green, like the apocalypse is coming, like I’m eight and staring out the doors of the save-u-more in Alaska while my mom shops for groceries in...

Poetry0 Comments

Preservation, decoration, olive oil, sea salt

Alan HansonAugust 14, 2023

I’m wondering which body of water you’ve bog-bodied your beauty into some tawdry taxidermy while I wait for mothballs and murderous hues of blue staring a...

Poetry0 Comments

a story about a boy whose arms are tentacles

Casey GarfieldAugust 1, 2023

(after the sea shanty 'the eddystone light') dad was a lighthouse keeper, mum was a sort of octopus mermaid. chat magazine called us the octo-tuplets even t...

Poetry0 Comments

Therapy

C. HeyneJuly 31, 2023

I swear there’s a body in the lake. Bobbing. Somewhere. I’ve gone to the pier once a week every week for years, trying to find it again. I bring out binoculars....

Poetry0 Comments

Inquiring minds want to know…

Victoria NordlundJuly 31, 2023

  Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb may have found pieces of alien technology gleaned from a meteor that crashed into Papua New Guinea in 2014 … Ten ti...

Poetry0 Comments

A Long Line at the Rummage Sale

Randy W. PerkinsJuly 17, 2023

A child's version of wisdom sits alone on the edge of years of dingy decisions. Moments patterned in plaid like a dirty old shirt that screams maturity los...

Poetry0 Comments

Whatever it Takes to Fit into Our Calvin Klein Jeans, 1981

M.R. MandellJuly 16, 2023

Happiness hinges on hips that twist into Calvin Klein jeans, size zero. Strutting like a fevered Saturday night, we prance past boys, chins cocked over ...

Poetry0 Comments

Looking for a Job

Nathaniel Kennon PerkinsJuly 11, 2023

Squinting at my computer screen while the light fades in my apartment. Through the open window howls headache traffic, and I think, every single one of...

Poetry0 Comments

To A Zoom Crush

Grace NovarrJune 29, 2023

In the white and unglamorous small box slipping off the screen, the new texture of our days beams onto us like silk screen. The next taut hour is stretched ov...

Poetry0 Comments

Britney’s New Look

Victoria NordlundJune 18, 2023

It’s been twenty years since you kissed Madonna at the VMA’s. And I saw on TikTok that you did it again at your wedding last June. (But maybe that was deep ...

Poetry0 Comments

Beast Mode

DebaseryJune 13, 2023

is this an appropriate time to go full panic attack mode or is it not the vibe i’m looking out the window like I always do Ethel Cain was our Florida g...

Poetry0 Comments

Ritual of the Dead

Brandee BensonMay 31, 2023

My mother tells me to stop stalling, every second a lost epiphany. I wonder if she sees girl eating time or time eating girl. Sometime in the last millio...

Poetry0 Comments

My Abstraction

Joshua BirdMay 29, 2023

the moth dries on the spot, the spot marked here, abstractions were wet with viscera even when you drew a line through and through the essay, experience is kill...

Poetry0 Comments

Burger King of Rome

Deron EckertMay 23, 2023

The one on the bypass back home where we had countless birthday parties in the playroom with the plastic tunnels and slides leading to the mesh-encased ball ...

Poetry0 Comments

Neon World

Ashley DingMay 22, 2023

Dads shoulders were the top of the neon world Cotton candy ice cream dripping down my arms Vivid blue and vibrant pink stains all over my body Losing my teet...

Poetry0 Comments

It’s Too Early For This

Jeana MahanMay 16, 2023

I saw someone in the airport that looked like you. Maybe it was because I just put my glasses on. Maybe it was because it was six in the morning. Maybe if I s...

Poetry1 Comment

I am watching a 2003 Oprah Show clip on TikTok

Victoria NordlundMay 2, 2023

where Tim and Wendy White haven’t cut their hair in seventeen years & Tim is a bass player in a never found fame band & Wendy struggles with her 1989 ...

Poetry0 Comments

late into some night

Austin DavisApril 20, 2023

if i’m falling out on the couch & see the doorknob twist then twist back i’ll trip over my legs to unbolt the lock i’ll hug u & not say a word i...

Poetry0 Comments

Venetian Ceruse

Emma WellsApril 17, 2023

A pliable cancer blithely swept across faces of noblewomen smearing ignorant flesh with stark virginity; painting untruths with wide brushstrokes of stee...

Poetry0 Comments

After Watching Joni Mitchell at Newport

David P. MillerApril 6, 2023

1977 and we four were all twenties in that Pittsburgh dining room: my first wife, our actress friend who vaulted a path to Broadway, the friend’s friend, and...

Poetry0 Comments

Summer, 1998

Jenny BoyarApril 4, 2023

When gospel was found in glossy pages of magazines I pored over, lemon juice soaking my hair, I was first learning how to be somebody I was not. “Baby On...

Poetry0 Comments

Bankers, Crows & Brandon Lee

Aidan ChafeMarch 30, 2023

This morning the sky hung with feathered syntax composed on wires. I discovered abstract expressionist crows had Pollocked the hood of my Prius. A stude...

Poetry0 Comments

If I Died Tomorrow I’d Want You To Know This

Jeana MahanMarch 26, 2023

Your post-it notes are endearing. When I say they’re stupid they’re actually not. Your beard could use a trim. Actually, that’s me being nice. I hate it. Ple...

Poetry0 Comments