Category: Print Archives

“Elk Splat,” a poem by Taneum Bambrick

The canyon the river ran through was bowl shaped & you could see from the water sometimes sheep on its rim. Our boat noise would collect in one wall and spill over the ledge of the next. That must’ve been what happened—a jet ski, for example, cutting through the middle of the gorge can sound…
Three Poems by Heikki Huotari

Guiding God At God’s request, I throw the ball. God brings the ball back wet. I palm the ball and swing my arm. God searches where He thinks the ball should be. The evening and the morning are the seventh day. God watches closely and I say, Remember, God, what happened last time, but of…
“More Fish Than Man,” a short story by Marcus Pactor

My cousin and I once fished under an interstate where a bent leg of swamp lay exposed and easy to approach. Its water was nothing to drink but it held plenty to eat. We caught a couple catfish inside half an hour. Then this not legendarily-sized gator but gator nonetheless came after his cork. My…
Poetry by MK Chavez: “You Can’t Spank the Monkey Forever, the Monkey Hates It”

Like porn, casual sex will eventually get boring. If the person you’re considering having sex with makes you feel dirty and ashamed before penetration, imagine how it will feel once your heart is harpooned and a mere figurehead on a prow. Everyone can be a unicorn if they stop being a dick. If someone has…
“At Large,” a poem by Brennan Bestwick

In the land of outlawed love,you and I collect police composite sketchesof one another. We pull our mug shotsfrom the spineof every telephone pole in the city. The local news airs videoof the two of us necking in the museum,Goya etchings of demons over our shoulders.We dissolveinto each other’s static beforethe footage ends. I throw…
Alex Duensing: “The Politics of Love,” a painting

*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size. Alex Duensing. Graduate of William Paterson and Columbia? Yes. Ran for St. Petersburg, Florida, City Council? Yes. Won? No. Stopped Mayan Apocalypse on rooftop with performance art? Yup. Strange but nice fellow? Clearly. Protégé of Arakawa+Gins, masters of the architectural body? Ongoing even after the supposed end.…
One-Act Play: “The Actuarials” by A.E. Weisgerber

Characters: Dr. Peng Ripshaw, The Incarcerator Dr. Vernon Stackpole, The Rehabilitator ※, The Regressor Scene: February 2028, Mindcast via The PubPol ClinX Roundtable, Cleveland Ohio, and Davos, Switzerland Ͷ Ͷ Ͷ (Screens flare and flicker) Ripshaw: A diagnosis is called for … Stackpole: Do you mean penal? perhaps remedial? PR: I mean machine-like. Simple computations,…
Three Essays from Brief Interviews with the Romantic Past: Kathryn Nuernberger

Introduction to the Symbols of the Revolution My husband is not interested in reading about Marie Antoinette’s hair. “Isn’t this a little girly for you?” he says. I show this man everything I write because he gives the best advice of anyone I know. He gives it in a way that is harsh, even when…
“They Had Turned into Something Else,” lyric fiction by Babak Lakghomi

To say it was just the voice in your head, that what you heard had nothing to do with anything. To say it was just about the fans blowing in the kitchen, that you couldn’t sleep, that you didn’t know for how long you hadn’t slept. To say that it was about your father, that…