Author: Heavy Feather

Poetry: “America!” by Margot Douaihy

THE OLD DAYS OH THEY WERE THE DAYS TRUE STORYUS KIDS BOLD AS THUNDER BACK THEN YOU KNOW AT MAIN & FIRST ST HE WAITED FOR US UNCLE SAMHIS GREASY HAIR HIS CRYSTAL-BALL EYES TRUST HIMGET READY KIDS HE SAID WE WERE READ GET READYWHERE MAIN MET FIRST SO MANY CARS TRUE STORYEXPLODING WITH TRAFFIC…
Noah Thornburgh on B.R. Yeager’s cosmic horror novel Negative Space

Works of cosmic horror threaten to consume their characters by the end. We expect an ultimate resolution, not necessarily through an explanation of the mysteries that preceded, but by the total convergence of the experience in a singular mystery. The Outside snuffs out the characters, inspires madness in them, cripples them—some final effect demonstrating the…
Two Poems by Sean Burke for Haunted Passages

The Moon Lays Down a No Trick Hand When father left office a rag of colts followed on their hind legs. It was the damnedest thing. All that year, Ms. Jansen’s calves were born without bodies. Their heads—strange, unwieldy cabbages— sang ecstatically in the fields. The teens that always plagued the Cinemagic parking lot (and…
Honor Vincent: “Boots,” a Haunted Passages short story

It was, as it always is, the cat who first noticed that the number of ghosts squeezing themselves into the apartment was increasing. The cat shared the apartment with a man, two young cats named Mimi and Sisi, and the usual variety of things that made their crawling lives in the walls and dark corners…
Andrew Bertaina: “A Good Day’s Work,” a Haunted Passages short story

The man threaded his way down the long rows of bodies with an old wheelbarrow, careful as he rolled, to avoid an outstretched hand, a folded leg, the acrobatics of the dead. The light bore down on his back, harsh and unrelenting as he worked in the tree-less, thankless cemetery. Velvety beaked crows lined the…
Three Poems by Elizabeth Weaver

psychotic denial of pregnancy My sister has a hand-sized birthmark the color of blood on her neckwhere the umbilical cord had been wrapped around her—her fist beneath, first of many quarrels with the world for a redhead born against the August heatwave and into this family. That day I had a fever, sprawled across found furniture and…
GIF Poem: “rorschach test insecure love poems for the 21st century” by Olivia Muenz

*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size. Olivia Muenz is an MFA candidate in creative writing at Louisiana State University. She received her BA from NYU and is currently the Digital Media Editor for New Delta Review. Her work is forthcoming in Salt Hill. @oliviamuenz.
“Becoming Gods,” a flash fiction for Haunted Passages by Steve Gergley

Oh, Jesus. Just try to relax. You’re okay. God. You’re okay, I’m right here with you, just like always. Just take it easy. Oh man. Okay. Yeah, that’s good. Don’t worry about getting up just yet. Just lay back and relax for a while. Okay. How are you feeling? I’m sorry, but I don’t really understand…
Haunted Passages: “Thank You for Shopping with CouchCart,” a short story by Tara Campbell

Tara Campbell (taracampbell.com) is a writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, and fiction editor at Barrelhouse. She received her MFA from American University in 2019. Previous and upcoming publication credits include SmokeLong Quarterly, Masters Review, Wigleaf, Jellyfish Review, Booth, Strange Horizons, and CRAFT Literary. She’s the author of a novel, TreeVolution, and two collections, Circe’s Bicycle and…