Ants from Different Colonies
By MELISSA GOODRICH
Ants from different colonies live upwards of 30 years. The fact of death surprises them. Ants from different colonies weren’t sure they ever would die. A lifespan is a long time. Continue reading Ants from Different Colonies
Mr. Express
By MORGAN HOBBS
The stars are out. They stand next to you at the bar. A blonde in red sequins takes out her compact. The harlequin in flesh colored pants. She licks her lollipop like an erotic migraine. Continue reading Mr. Express
What is (the Point of) Narrative Poetry?
By ALEKS CONRAD
Most narrative poetry does not fully articulate a story so much as construct its scaffolding and allude to its content with imagery and lyricism. Continue reading What is (the Point of) Narrative Poetry?
Like Isis for Osiris
By SHELDON LEE COMPTON
His get well soon card is lighter than expected, almost not there at all. No I LOVE YOU like so often before. No MY SECRET BEAUTY. Only one sentence saying he is going back to White Mountain. Continue reading Like Isis for Osiris
Among the Wreckage
By JEN MICHALSKI
Everyone in the waiting room of the city towing office smells drunk. Even the children. The tape that secures the bandage to your face no longer sticks, and the gauze brushes your lips where it has fallen from your nose. Continue reading Among the Wreckage
Unfortunately, This Story is Not a Good Fit and Your Life is a Joke
Part of the problem was that every sentence you wrote made us want to vomit. Personally, when I finished reading your submission (and by finished, I mean gave up after page three), I felt like Abraham walking away from a burning Sodom and Gomorrah after failing to identify a single, redeemable soul. Continue reading Unfortunately, This Story is Not a Good Fit and Your Life is a Joke
Pasta Heart
By SHELDON LEE COMPTON
The doctor says he can’t hear anything. He presses the stethoscope harder against my chest. Not a thing, he says, and his mouth hangs open. It actually hangs open like a question. Continue reading Pasta Heart
How to Read a Book, According to Stock Photos
According to the Pew Research Center, the average American only reads four books in a year, and 27 percent of us read none at all. I came across these stats a few weeks ago and felt immediately burdened by a payload of poopy shame, because my numbers aren’t exactly ahead of the pack. But then I remembered Gus Van Sant’s fictional psychotherapist telling poor Will … Continue reading How to Read a Book, According to Stock Photos
Dear Madonna, I Am Ready for My Oral Sex
If it helps, I’ve recently become a feminist myself. There was no protest march in my hometown, but I did walk up and down the street wearing a vagina hat in front of the Splashin’ City Car Wash. Continue reading Dear Madonna, I Am Ready for My Oral Sex
Excerpt from “The Claustrophobes”
By ALEKS CONRAD
On the wall beside our bookcase, streaks and circles of red marker are drawn in a kind of Cy Twombly pattern—some lucid, some smudged, and one that looks almost like a face. Dammit. I will have to paint over this. Continue reading Excerpt from “The Claustrophobes”
