Author: Heavy Feather

“The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living; or, Selfies,” a poem by Jeff Alessandrelli

When asked what he would saveIf his house was on fireJohn Cocteau replied, “The fire.”A convicted arsonist,The work that Cocteau admiredWas of the variety that revealed itself immediatelyAnd then changed such a revealOver time.Fire’s hot, burns things.Each flame understandsAn illusory worldWhere everything isThat’s the caseAnd nothing isEver hidden.Conjecture is confusing:How the thought of what might…
“Heroes,” lyric fiction by Miranda Mellis

1. I am winding around a river in scarves. I become a fish. I am an eel with a man’s head, swimming in an ancient tributary, over gemstones. I finally grow feet, legs, arms, hands and I climb to shore. I walk, naked, and as I walk I sing. As I sing, I grow clothing,…
Essay Hybrid: “Gnome: Excerpts” by Robert Lunday

Kouroi step forward and their smiles are votive candles. How much is lived between the words? What we need to see hides in the blind spots. The more we close our eyes, the more our faces open. Contours ripple to a point of disappearance. Whites of the eyes enhance gaze signals. Eyebrows exaggerate expression. A…
Three Poems by Kim Kyung Ju (Translated by Jake Levine)

Hear the Mackerel Cry In a deep place grown flesh is filled to the brim. If you see the mackerel grill, at first, the mackerel’s lips burst. Ahhhh . . . and pop. Sprinkling from the mouth, black fictions flow freely. Like the one bullet in a thousand that weeps in the flame, the ocean…
A Poem by Rob Gray: “The Rhododendron and Camellia Year Book (1966)”

—for Richard and Frances Chiem 1 We needMore men like RichardSons, brothers, uncles andFathers like Richard We needMore women like RichardDaughters, sisters, aunts andMothers like Richard We needMore poets like RichardPoems like RichardBooks like Richard We needMore metaphors like RichardWe needMore architects like Richard To build sustainable and affordable housing like RichardBungalowsChurchesMosques Tenement buildingsSkyscrapersSynagogues andSupermarkets…
Three Poems by Jasmine An

Film Analysis Techniques Whose perspective does the camera represent? Whose eyes? I stare. How am I any different than the hungry sockets of men? What if my hand slips between my legs? What if I moan? Which sounds are diegetic? What if I moan? The music is supposed to be Mandarin. The soldiers are shouting…
“Torture Horse,” a poem by Jessie Janeshek

See my body moveso many nuclear beauties in tinfoildraping the rage. My mouth is too smallto matter to anyone.Just eat the hooves, the woods, you can leave Niagara Falls a restoration labyrinthine a curvy woman in a wasp costumein the copper hallway. Sometimes I’m absorbent or my poison failsand I try to bite off your…
Nonfiction Essay: Philip James Shaw’s “when i’m having a difficult time maintaining my concentration with regard to certain aspects of my most immediate surroundings”

when i am away to work.I can work. I can even go away to work. I work as well as I can. Even though it changes, I am keeping up. A hotel room is a cleanser of sleep, of my life. Devoid of attachments, I splay myself out on the King, in less than boxer…
Poetry by Brian D. Morrison: “The Idea of Canaries”

Psychoanalysis tells us the secretof healthy living: speech. Unspokenthoughts can travel at light speedramped to the power of 1938, the yearFreud’s four sisters were not savable. He joked, I can most highly recommendthe Gestapo to everyone. He could saylittle more and filled his throatwith canaries. The birds would sing,and then silence. Canary after canary stopped…