Category: The Last Word

Six Poems by Jessica Lawson

seasonal employment the sun sets at 4:36pm today how does early dark affect you solstice is a different day every year how does early dark affect you they have made some cutbacks in the sun department a constant temporary position a temporary constant loss how does early dark affect you solstice has been declared a…
“Skin Parchment,” a short fiction/prose poetry hybrid by Phoebe Rusch

Interstices Two rutted roads cross in a heat-hazed field. An old man with broken legs leans on his crutches there. He looks familiar, like a recurring dream, a flash in your peripheral vision. He shows you all your lives and the choices made, stringing them in the air before you like beads on an abacus.…
Poetry: “America!” by Margot Douaihy

THE OLD DAYS OH THEY WERE THE DAYS TRUE STORYUS KIDS BOLD AS THUNDER BACK THEN YOU KNOW AT MAIN & FIRST ST HE WAITED FOR US UNCLE SAMHIS GREASY HAIR HIS CRYSTAL-BALL EYES TRUST HIMGET READY KIDS HE SAID WE WERE READ GET READYWHERE MAIN MET FIRST SO MANY CARS TRUE STORYEXPLODING WITH TRAFFIC…
Three Poems by Elizabeth Weaver

psychotic denial of pregnancy My sister has a hand-sized birthmark the color of blood on her neckwhere the umbilical cord had been wrapped around her—her fist beneath, first of many quarrels with the world for a redhead born against the August heatwave and into this family. That day I had a fever, sprawled across found furniture and…
GIF Poem: “rorschach test insecure love poems for the 21st century” by Olivia Muenz

*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size. Olivia Muenz is an MFA candidate in creative writing at Louisiana State University. She received her BA from NYU and is currently the Digital Media Editor for New Delta Review. Her work is forthcoming in Salt Hill. @oliviamuenz.
Two Poems by Jason Phoebe Rusch

White Civilization In the wild, mothers eattheir young. Wolves maul those who disagree. Whydo we believe ourselves to be tender, reasoned,impartial? Why are we surprised by our feral, ouramoral, project our primeval onto those we rape and savage?We gratify ourselves. That is what animalsdo. Bare teeth and claws, hold each other down. The metric beingpower,…
Two Poems by Nancy Hightower

Resurrectionfor Jericho Death always wins. Despite sunsetand a blood moon calling for magic,there’s a small body leftin the field of lilacsand still more bodiesadrift on a forgotten sea,and he sings their namesin remembrance, wears a crownof flowers with half-cocked grinbecause tomorrow bringsnew tragedies like a promise. Still, he believesin the prophecy of rain,blesses the descentfrom…
Essay: “You’re Not Dead” by Reverie Koniecki

Don’t you think it’s creepy that your name is written there and you’re not dead? I ask. Why do you say that? my mother responds. I guess I’m just not ready to die, I say. We are looking down at my sister’s new gravestone. It is a rectangle with her name, birthdate, and of course…
Short Story: “Bombing from Above” by Alex Kudera

In Xi’an, China, I had the runs. It had gone on for two days, and I couldn’t control it. I couldn’t stop going. In the middle of the night, I’d dash to our apartment’s American-style toilet bowl where it would pour out like a Biblical flood. On a stifling bus—one sardine among many—the urge would…