Author: Heavy Feather

Two Poems & Advertisement by Jackie Craven

*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size. Edited version of a public domain advertisement The circus has a new address~Ringling Bros. to close ‘greatest show’… The elephants left long ago—Linked snout to tail, theyplodded over to the Capitol dome and now themonkeys follow, swinging from legislative branches.Rounding the beltway, bears on unicycles lead a…
Poetry: “say something” by Ananda Lima

for your safety ifyou see somethingsay a package apurse say somethingthat should not bethere unattended saysomething laughingas they say somethingyou don’t understandsay somethingscribbling somethingyou don’t understandsay something youdon’t understand saysomething thatshould not besomething for yoursafety say somethingceasing to besomething for yoursafety if you seesomething thatshould not be Ananda Lima’s work has appeared in The American Poetry…
Two Poems by Greg Allendorf

Psalm In pieces, the heart comprises only a pale sketch. I have been stitching. I have found the room in the heart where no wind stands. I have looked at the mirror in that room and I have wept at the blank peace in my own eyes. Your mistake is in trusting I hate you.…
Poetry: Candice Wuehle’s “As thyself”

I try not to hateThine neighborNeighbor as hangingFlag the neighbor hasHung & hung myHome with pall, civilMonster unmakes my shareIn the year the yardRends and tears, tearsBlemish the arrivals Is thisPlanet under a grey auspice? amNot alien our neighbor ? I try notTo hate thine neighbor sickEning the yard as thoughEarth an unsoundLadder, the base…
Fiction: Stephen Langlois’ “New White House Submission Guidelines”

*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size. Stephen Langlois is a writer of the fantastic and absurd. His work has appeared in Glimmer Train, The Portland Review, 3AM Magazine, Maudlin House, Monkeybicycle, matchbook, Split Lip Magazine, and Necessary Fiction, among others. He is a recipient of The Center for Fiction’s NYC Emerging Writers Fellowship as well as…
Three Poems by Elizabeth Onusko

Call to Action Though its primary function is withstanding a sustained assault, a castle also serves as the dominant symbol in most state-sanctioned mythologies. Pay attention, pay attention. If we’re all in this together, why must I prioritize minor celebrities in my daily prayer regimen. When the cable car I’m riding gets stuck above a…
Poetry: Ace Boggess’ “Has the Music Faded at All?”

—Lawrence Watt-Evans, Night of Madness The walls have learned a low hum—basso, staccato—like a tuba stuck in a wind tunnelor so many elephants endlessly marchingaround the perimeter.The opposite of a canine whistle,it marks its moansin sensible waves setting cinderblocks atremblein aftershocks.A little of the shake, rattle & roll,rockin’ in the unfree world,more twisting, less shoutingexcept…
Three Fictions from First Presidents: Joseph Scapellato

James Madison James Madison stood on a log shaped like the limb of a great man. He was as short as the tallest American mushroom, yet more withered. For several days he had ridden from camp to town to camp in the woods outside Washington City, to assess the state of the British invasion. Every…
Poetry: “Press Conference” by Gabriel Welsch

Lies are a special Esperanto.A language spoken with a set of the eyes,in a suit a few sizes too big, to makeroom for spasms of the heart’sremaining muscle, the tornslips of paper and innuendoadding up to a surrogate soul,the meaning holds its feet notin syllables but the telemetryamong the vicious. A podiumhas to prop the…