Author: Heavy Feather

Side A Original Short Fiction: “Transients” by Maggie Nerz Iribarne

Transients I tossed garbage bags full of last items into my Honda. Wire hangers, rolls of wrapping paper, a comforter. The orange tabby cat appeared, jumped into the back. “Damn you!” I shouted. The cat arched and skittered to the ground, running behind the (no longer) rented bungalow. I expedited to the driver’s seat, my…
Side A Short Story: “Cynthia Forgiveness Swimmer” by Myles Zavelo

Everyone’s getting wasted at the lake tonight. The train tracks cross over the lake. The moon is making the lake really shiny. Cynthia doesn’t want to be my friend anymore. I’m a little beyond the border of the party. I’m standing with the shadowy bushes. I feel like some freaky creep. I catch Cynthia as…
Bad Survivalist Short Story: “Rules and Suggestions for Surviving on a Deserted Island After Your Plane Suddenly Loses Altitude and Crashes” by Keith J. Powell

Stay Hungry.Begin each morning with a meticulous inventory of the finite morsels scavenged from the wreckage. One duty-free bag full of tiny liquor bottles begging to be twisted open. Thirty-two plastic packages of broken pretzels, each containing approximately seven pretzels per package. Six mini-cans of Diet Pepsi. Remember, this is all you have until rescue.…
“Cause and Cracks that Create the Infinite Possibilities”: John Greiner on Randee Silv’s New Prose Poetry Collection Nextness

The push and pull that holds tension taught, the lightness caught by the heavy hand that moves fluidly, the same and the different of what was and what will be, these are the things that cause the cracks that are created to overflow with infinite possibilities, possibilities that fill the work of Randee Silv and…
Restored Fiction: “Slow 9/11” by Dolan Morgan

“Can you describe a time when someone betrayed you?” This question is posed to me by Jan during a round of The Ungame, which I play over lunch with a group of colleagues in our architecture firm on the 92nd floor. The Ungame looks deceptively like Candy Land but is described, in its product materials,…
Book Review: Matt Matros on Outer Sunset, a novel by Mark Ernest Pothier

Jim Finley, following in the tradition of retired high school English teachers everywhere, is always ready to offer his literary insight. Without much prompting, he’ll tell you that, according to Wallace Stevens, “a good poem resolves the tension between sentimentality and seeing things as they truly are.” If only Jim could do the same. The…
Original Poem: “A Message to Meg, from the Dead of Night” by Joe O’Brien

I’m texting you this anachronisticpainting of our favorite TV characterto remind us what memories feel like I’m following this feed where they mash up old Simpsons gagswith other old Simpsons gags and then mash those up with Sopranos quotesso I might wring every last droplet of joy that I canfrom whatever I can still wrap…
Original Fiction: “Irish Setter” by Travis Flatt

Mrs. Withers wants to repeat our conversation. Mrs. Withers corners me in the hall. In body language, Mrs. Withers is illiterate. I edge away from Mrs. Withers. “Mrs. Withers” might not be Mrs. Withers’ name, so I’m careful not to call Mrs. Withers “Mrs. Withers.” My father, Mrs. Withers seems to think, and I share…
A Surreal Prose Poem for Haunted Passages: “Split” by Sayantani Roy

I never get used to this city being stretched and stretched like elastic. New constructions every day. Streets that were open and wide, now like canyons. The sun glinting off and dying on boxy buildings. Everything looks the same. America the bland. Every day I leave my box and return to it. The only green…