Category: The Last Word

Writers getting the last word. HFR is invested in elevating art by marginalized groups with this feature.

Two Poems by Greg Allendorf

Psalm In pieces, the heart comprises only a pale sketch. I have been stitching. I have found the room in the heart where no wind stands. I have looked at the mirror in that room and I have wept at the blank peace in my own eyes. Your mistake is in trusting I hate you.…
Poetry: Candice Wuehle’s “As thyself”

I try not to hateThine neighborNeighbor as hangingFlag the neighbor hasHung & hung myHome with pall, civilMonster unmakes my shareIn the year the yardRends and tears, tearsBlemish the arrivals Is thisPlanet under a grey auspice? amNot alien our neighbor ? I try notTo hate thine neighbor sickEning the yard as thoughEarth an unsoundLadder, the base…
Fiction: Stephen Langlois’ “New White House Submission Guidelines”

*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size. Stephen Langlois is a writer of the fantastic and absurd. His work has appeared in Glimmer Train, The Portland Review, 3AM Magazine, Maudlin House, Monkeybicycle, matchbook, Split Lip Magazine, and Necessary Fiction, among others. He is a recipient of The Center for Fiction’s NYC Emerging Writers Fellowship as well as…
Three Poems by Elizabeth Onusko

Call to Action Though its primary function is withstanding a sustained assault, a castle also serves as the dominant symbol in most state-sanctioned mythologies. Pay attention, pay attention. If we’re all in this together, why must I prioritize minor celebrities in my daily prayer regimen. When the cable car I’m riding gets stuck above a…
Poetry: “Press Conference” by Gabriel Welsch

Lies are a special Esperanto.A language spoken with a set of the eyes,in a suit a few sizes too big, to makeroom for spasms of the heart’sremaining muscle, the tornslips of paper and innuendoadding up to a surrogate soul,the meaning holds its feet notin syllables but the telemetryamong the vicious. A podiumhas to prop the…
Fiction: “The Outlaw Truth” by Ron Gibson, Jr.

Leticia sits at her kitchen table, drinking coffee, curtains parted, watching the dirty dawn brightening between the bare limbs of the Rodneys’ elm next door. Light falls as harpoons and elevator shafts, laying out on her front lawn like butchered meat in a bazaar. A flock of ducks give in, charge toward ghosts over the…
“Exemplary, Emerging Visionary: Meri Sheen of Bohemian Dreams” (Fiction by Alexandria Morales)

Introduce yourself. Who are you, where are you from, and what are you doing now? People know me as Meri Sheen. I am a product of Hollywood, California. I’ve produced the fashion blog Bohemian Dreams since I was eleven years old, for eleven years now. My blog details my journey through Crossroads School, Grand Arts…
Poetry: Genève/Geneva Chao’s “Things I’ve Vomited Since Nov. 9, 2016 (a partial list)”

Things that I’ve vomited since Nov. 9, 2016include my breakfast on Nov. 10, 2016, whichwas the first day I attempted to eat breakfast,blobs of egg and beans that did not decideto become part of my cells; include threechocolate chip cookies that I baked beforeI realized my gorge was still rising, and whichcame out like play-dough,…
Two Poems by Katie Armstrong

Donald John Trump I expected this Samsonbombast. His boast aballoon, a hot warren riddle,and a big bag of duck down—and that’s not to mention how he’llpillow in the rubble. But who was it saidout of the strong, somethingsweet? I do know you said it was for me,notwithstanding endangered bees. Imagine, for a moment,the taste of…