Category: Haunted Passages

Haunted Passages Poetry: “Ode to the Beginning of Things Between Us” by Max Lasky

Love is a beetle in the brainsays my horoscope today, whichmakes me think of my wife’schildhood nickname, Beetle, a playon her middle name, Betul, Turkish for virgin, or pure, a nameshe abandoned by the wayside aftersplitting hearts with wedge and sledgehammer, the way experience accrues around firewoodlike dead leaves in the fenced in cornerof our…
“Bruce Lee Does the Cha Cha with My Grandmother in the Seventh Level of the Underworld,” a Haunted Passages poem by Vincent Antonio Rendoni

Often, I think of a young Lee Jun-Fan—just a student at the University of Washington—in the days before he met his wife, entering his prime. I see him swinging his elbows, pushing out hipswith Abuela, also new, out of place& foreign to Seattle at the time. Together, they move up and downthe smoke-filled parlor above…
New Poetry for Haunted Passages: “Night Terrors” by Mike Bagwell

The trick is to return from somewhereyou haven’t been. This time,I am climbing the buildingon top of the building. I’m ready now. Or, my reflection is.When the night gets sharp enough,it is feminine. It whittles itselfinto underwater caverns. The recipe calls for mirror shardsand a full jar of honey to make it easier.It won’t be…
“Beans”: A Haunted Passages Flash Fiction by Eli S. Evans

In Nebraska, the cows are all standing close together, but as there are various reasons for which cows might choose to stand close together, I do not know the reason the cows in Nebraska are all standing close together; later, in Iowa, the cows are all standing far apart, but as there are various reasons…
A Short Story for Haunted Passages: “Room 625” by George Choundas

A man sits in a double-parked car with a sign in the window reading, Room625 The sign attracts attention. A room for rent at the rate of $625 a month is a steal. The rental market in, near, and around the city is a sustained explosion. People will approach the car, point at the sign,…
“One Punch”: A Haunted Passages Prose Poem by John Wall Barger

Either he dies or I die.—Duk-Koo Kim, before his 1982 world championship boxing match with Ray Boom Boom Mancini I. The boxer Duk-Koo Kim grew up poor in Kojin, a fishing village east of Seoul. Whenever he asked for money his mother walloped him. His mother married four times. At fourteen he moved to Seoul,…
Haunted Passages: Three Poems by Rita Mookerjee

Pyre The ghost vibrates with the furyof someone who was flayed alivebut I like to pretend his death wasdignified like the silent drop ofa tiger lily petal no witnesses noscreams when he is awake henever stops working relentlessand viscous like mercury and herises from a soft grave to chop uphickory logs even though it takeshours…
“Shrouded by death & isolation is a promise / a future”: Haunted Passages Poetry by Brekken Carns

I. Wanted: the dead image of her human face — a sheep butchered on the dewy grass tongue dangling below its pale soft nose newborn-pink eyes frozen wild in terror (terror such a wild thing) as if in formalin the back right leg torn clean off, jagged muscles steaming and gone ripped from socket a…
A Haunted Passages Poem: “The Red Kickball” by Jason Melvin

We thought it’d be funnot waiting for nightfallsticky summer afternoon séancesun high up in the skyeight of us just kissing the teen yearshanging out on my back porchalways in search of a thrill and a scare We circled up discussed next movesWhen all four grandparents and your fatherare dead by time you’re eleventhere are plenty…