Author: Heavy Feather

Side A Poetry: “Dream Lover” by Paul Ilechko

Dream Lover The people you love the most are the ones who come to mind when you wake up in the darkness unsure of where you are and how you got to be thereit’s as stygian as the movie theater downtown in that brief period before the titles start an interval that feels almost dreamlike…
Poetry for Side A: “And Then It Died” by Heather Pegas

And Then It Died The presentation of the thing was … Spongy Friable Feathered, and Cold. (It had not been looking great for some time.) When we tried to pick it up, it was seen to … Cower, Whimper Hiss, and Snarl. (It gazed upon us in sad disbelief.) For the longest time, we had…
Bad Survivalist Poetry: “Dream Mechanics (non troppo)” by Haitian/Helena Jiang

(I know nothing about mechanics and would not. But I know that)It wasn’t you who played chess with me that time, and it wasn’t chessbut the kind of marbles that could and are better used as bullets,letting go of and no return, now that I come to think of it, like we used to playpingpong…
Side A Fiction: “Whirlpool” by Mark Wagstaff

Whirlpool The seaside painter paints what he sees. For tourists who scour the old town shops for authentic memories of their happy days at the beach. Who pay extra for signed and framed, to support artisan crafts. For friends, to settle small debts, though everyone knew these pictures never gained value. As presents, a quaint…
Side A Poem: “Preservations below the Moon” by Salvatore Difalco

Preservations below the Moon “We belong to the earth.”That’s the mushrooms talking.Someone else is sobbing in the shadows,hiding behind piano fingers. “I need to go home.”It ain’t happening, mate.You drove us into a treeand all the colors clashed. Let me tip you overand see if you can roll up again.It’s not winter yet.That explains the…
Side A Prose Poem by Jeffrey Hermann: “Someone’s Making Money Off My Old Problems, Someone Else Is Charging Me for New Ones”

When I call to make a fuss everyone claims to be a manager. Writing for a living is as easy as throwing up in the toilet. Every morning I flip the lid and wait. I once wrote an essay that needed no revisions. The theme was, c’mon, this life? Look harder. Try harder. My skeleton…
Flash Fiction for Bad Survival: “How to Acquire Land” by Genevieve Murdick

The Young Knight picked her out of what they’d left of her village, when she was just six. After loading up on as much milk and grain and heirlooms as he could fit on two bags on a horse, the Young Knight had room enough for a wife—but not an entire wife—not yet; and he…
Haunted Passages Short Fiction: “Fate Cat” by Olufunmilayo Makinde

“Keep your hat on!” Ajoke’s mother yelled as she watched her daughter leave for school. “Yes ma!” Ajoke yelled back, pulling her cap tighter over her head by its brim as she ran out of the house and headed toward the bus outside. Ajoke was born with a cat on her head, just like her…
Two Poems for Haunted Passages: Disha Trivedi

Poem in Place of a Needle My lover writes letters, sealedwith saliva, and I cut them open,put tongue on paper that delivershis tongue. Become old-world lovers.Grandmother, grandfather, weddedby ocean. Nineteen, already armedwith a lifetime’s distress. Some lovers have reason for hurting. Onebigger than childhoods of butterbrowned over. Once, I was goodat scaling trees in the…