Author: Heavy Feather

Ryan Mills: “Poem”

Then his pancakes come and I’m likePlease leave the flowers—and really, after his question(“have you ripped a big one lately?”)I see he’s a one-trick pony.A tiny glass vase centers our table Then his pancakes come and I’m likeHow could anybody masturbate to Slaughterhouse-Five?My Aunt the Grandmanever put on a belt herself, how awkward!the dancing. Then…
The Future: “Anything Can Be a Weapon,” a collaborative short story by Dana Diehl & Melissa Goodrich (from The Classroom)

When the zombies overtook the Lakeshore School District, the Dads were the first to go. They were crossword Dads. Whiskery and near-sighted. They were dads with novelty bowties. Some say the zombies took the Dads first because they were the strongest, because the zombies were building an army and needed strong soldiers. But we know…
The Future: Four Illustrations by Selene dePackh

*Ed.’s Note: click images to view larger sizes. Illuminated Passages 11-a Illuminated Passages 25 PTSD 2nd Restatement PTSD 3rd Restatement Selene dePackh creates innovative story lines that expand the science fiction genre of cyberpunk into an entirely new subcategory which she calls Neuropunk, which draws on her own autism to immerse the reader in a…
“When It Was Over,” a Bad Survivalist poem by Tyler Dillow

It was like coffee spilling on my shoes. The insects: beetles, ants, mosquitos. You—repeating—and flies on my feet, in my ears, on my feet. It was the buzzing that filled me. Mayflies, the color of your skin. Caterpillars, the color of your skin. Their eyes, the color of your skin. My name—you kept saying it—over…
Zachary Kocanda on Ryan Werner’s Brainwashing Miss Teen Nosebleed USA, a book of one sentence album reviews

I was introduced to Ryan Werner’s work when I read and reviewed his novella Soft (Passenger Side Books, 2015) a few years ago. The novella is composed of two hundred fifty-eight micro-chapters, some as short as one sentence, so it made sense that for his new book, Brainwashing Miss Teen Nosebleed USA, Werner decided to…
“He Came into the House,” a short story for Haunted Passages by Fraylie Nord

When the trap door swung down, the girl received it with her entire body. I saw it happen before I disappeared. It wasn’t intentional, and I knew I was in trouble. The door wasn’t engineered to hurt people. It was meant to hinge downward, hold the weight of a terrifying girl, and then swing back…
Poetry: Three EVP Recording Sessions by Lauren Brazeal Garza

EVP Recording Session #1: The Original Poltergeist Recalls “I moseyed to the lifeless party late, buried my shock under my skirts just like a garter. —Wait. I never moved or carried anything. No clothing in the great beyond. It’s tailored: each unpleasant underworldly task. Our assignment was forgetting all that’s physical. No body danced, I…
Haunted Passages: Three Visual Poems by Ana

*Ed.’s Note: click images to view larger sizes. Seed Luminous Marrow Bestia Ana is a Zurich-based legal professional. She serves as art director with Pidgeonholes Magazine and recently published work in Obra/Artifact, Storm Cellar, and Hayden’s Ferry Review.
Poetry by Alexa Mal: “Everything You Need to Know about Cooking with Blood”

friends, it’s gotten so practical the glass thumbs our feetwarmly & we dancelike academicswith arms at the sky endlessly shifting (fidgetous)& thundered toward a national monument won’t you deconstruct my second headpull out the dead leavesthe crochet needles [sad girl petitions to be mayor of chai lattes] I’m just collecting best friends I’mstill…