Author: Heavy Feather

Three Inaugural Poems by jacklyn janeksela

human morality is a distant planet, a fading star from a distance, a bomb-pop is meltingsomeone licks the drippings, but not meand not anyone i know, they swallow like pornstars, hum all the way down ona star-bangled banner, gag on poverty, the heel of bread toughenedlike skins of pigs and patriots and people, yespeople, rather…
Essay: Stacia M. Fleegal’s “How to really watch the borders”

When she won most of the votes but still lost the election, some of the students at the college where I work were devastated and some were not. I gave up hiding my mascara smudges by nine thirty in the morning because the first defiance of misogyny is I’m not here to look good for…
Fiction Review: December Cuccaro on Amanda Marbais’ A Taxonomy of Lies

Amanda Marbais weaves together metamorphic myth, science fiction, and current literary style to give us her debut chapbook, A Taxonomy of Lies. Transformation and omniscient narration are hallmarks of fairy tales, but Marbais uses both to successfully subvert expectations and tie together traditional fairy tale elements with modern malaise. Undercurrents of dissatisfaction and miscommunication run…
Fiction: Ryder Collins’ “The weeds is us”

Not the fates or the furies but they flew in bad asses just the same. The land was already writhing roiling burning fighting so you’d think no one would notice these bitches blowing in but … everything stopped. Everyone stopped biting, peeing, fucking, eating, snoring, snorting, dicking; every sweat pore stopped sweating, every bead of…
Poetry: “As I Play a Drinking Game for the Final Debate, Cheering for Empathy” by Olatunde Osinaike

the rules: take a shot any time either candidate interrupts the other take a shot any time the Donald brings up the wall or yours take a shot every time Trump points to the polls to break them down again takes shot take a shot every time Hillary anxiously chuckles the debate back into one…
Essay: “HOW EVERY LIVING THING IS IN ITSELF A HOUSE ON FIRE” by David Tomaloff

*Ed.’s Note: click images to view larger sizes. ONE///DWELLINGS [1] [1] the dwellings we are as dirt, our pillars raised quieter than blood. ONE///VESSELS [2] [2] the vessels we are as ghosts; wet like fingers, treading the dry of leaves. ONE///LINES [3] [3] the lines we are as birds; cages held in ransom; the back of a mirror or a lens.…
Fiction: Delaney Nolan’s “Apple/Arcadia”

Six months after Katrina, you jump head-first into shallow bayou water and break your fool neck. I’m not there when it happens, but Jean is, shooting at raccoons. He fishes you out and pulls you onto the slimy bank. You aren’t moving your limbs any, but Jean can see your chest heaving: in, out, in.…
Fiction: “Dear Editor” by Paul Beckman

Dear Editor, Please cancel our subscription. I can no longer have your newspaper lying around where my children can read the “Letters to the Editor” advocating same-sex marriage, separation of church and state, atheist rights, teaching of sex education in school, locations where free condoms are dispensed, transgender studies (whatever they are), school book lists…
Two Poems by Ruth Baumann

In Absentia The hard part is the thickening of bones, the rebuildingwhat only existed ever in a system of impulse say say you want a cigaretteten years later say the elements that bind youto your old self hold the light flick it on easy everythingeverything it says used to come easy once you…