Author: Heavy Feather

Poetry by Trina Burke: “Argument Against the Earthy Pigments”

Our family motto is I want to hold my son and have him talk at me with the cuteness of dumping beer-drowned slugs. Pericarditis. Someone put a cork in the aorta. It sounds like a valentine. The apples are at that stage of unblemished ripeness that is perfect and I don’t have to worry about…
“Midnight at the Organporium,” a short story by Tara Campbell

I only did it for you, when I crept into the Organporium at the Southside Mall last night and broke the glass to the heart display and took what I thought you needed. I mean, how could I have known it wasn’t the right thing. I’d watched you and listened to you; I’d felt your…
Two Poems by Matt Muth

Celebration Lane Be large o heart hug the sumof this world close: its shiny skin its Chinesefamilies stuffing fries into their kidsits Tesla bulbs its bindis tinselwinking in Fendi shades all of us a tight and liquid macraméof living well the light show at the IMAXa sentimental crumple zone the percussionsection’s toms the bands betweenthe…
Excerpt from Gimme the Pretty: Sonnets, poetry by Devon Wootten

What hath might & what hath lament—prolly.Reader, banality’s preferable, i.e., bad faith &/or dialectic,intolerable ambiguity. Reader, take the easy way,mankind &Christendom. * Reader, I’d elsewhere’d it—donesensed & re-sensed,made full & made whole.Reader,them’s the most-dead.Them’s the foolishness.[Breathing]T’ave found want.T’ave found what’s lack & t’ave fasted on’t—O, well-nigh incarnate,stay with me.O, hold-out,O, cut of mine, what’s lent…
Flash Fiction by Heather Sager: “SIT”

MOM TOLD ME I WAS HER BEST ONLY DAUGHTER AND I NEEDED TO SIT WITH GRANDPA BECAUSE OF THIS BECAUSE OF MY BROTHERS THIS IS A TASK SHE COULD NOT ENJOY—MY BROTHERS HAVE LIVES AND I DO THIS FOR HER.SHE DRIVES PLACES SHE IS A MOTHER BUT WHEN MOM DROPS ME OFF I CAN TELLGRANDPA…
“The Complicated Twirl,” a flash fiction by AJ Atwater

Even with advanced techniques like the Complicated Twirl, the Deep Dive, and the candidly difficult balletic Shoulder-Spading, the Shovelers fail to unearth their client. Sweating from the attempt, they polish shovel blades and buff wooden handles with luminous wax from polish kits they carry. They settle shovels carefully into cases like those for violins or…
Three Poems by Noah Eli Gordon

After Words There were Those who Were there And then There were Those who Made there Their own In Praise of the Passive Voice LeisureTo enjoy the soundAnd dimensionOf rainfall Rather than beingRushed To the conclusion Regardlessof how conciseIt may be As the rain Is fallingThat the rain falls Is what IYour humble subjectIs precisely…
Five Strips from In Search of Basho, a haiku/comic mashup by Ross Findlay & Mark “Fittsy” Fittock

*Ed.’s Note: click images to view larger sizes. In Search of Basho is a haiku/comic mashup written by Ross Findlay and drawn by Mark ‘Fittsy’ Fittock. Both reside in Germany. The comic details the last year of the protagonist’s life as he goes on one final trip in search of the haiku master, Matsuo Basho.…
Michael Seymour Blake Fiction: “Still No Snow”

I ask the mystic about his nails. “Oh these,” he says, tapping them together, each as long as my foot and connected to gnarled, root-like fingers. “A tribute to Daddy Grace, miracle worker.” I tell him I don’t believe in miracles, and he laughs. He claims miracles are as common as tragedies. He claims he…