If drawn on paper, / an incurable condition / would be an oval, / bisected by a horizontal line.
Incurable by Miki Byrne
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Magazine
Gravediggers by Cass Fernandez-Dieguez
In the future, the only way to make a living is by digging graves. Coffins are no longer made out of fine mahogany and walnut; they are planted and the bodies become trees.
Insides by Aquinas
The lungs of who you are betray the bones of what you’ve become. / I could carry you in my chest for as long as I hold my breath, / but that would be too long.
Stay Pretty by Natalie Hirt
Sylvia lived next door, which is a good thing, because I wasn’t allowed to play at anyone else’s house. We were six-years-old when we met through the chain-link fence that separated our backyards.
How Someone Might Be Seen by Jack Bigglestone
lounging on the gritty hot stone pool edge / casual fingers push ripples across / the surface where watery eyes / meet
Graveyard Games by James J. Valliere
Halloween night. Katherine Burke is desperate to find something to wear. She rummages through her closet. There’s got to be something she can fashion into a costume. She has to find something. Something great.
Upon Returning by Phylise Smith
Once again / I enter the country of my ancestors / stand on sere vegetation both familiar / and forgotten, never promised to me.
Almost Nowhere by Sasha Saben Callaghan
Once, I had my own Year of Living Dangerously. It wasn’t like the film. What does ‘dangerous’ mean? I didn’t get up every morning thinking I might die, although I sometimes wished it.
Piggyback Rides by Leah Messing
The New York City lights illuminated the street sign, and I felt my knees buckling as my cousin Ali and I approached Ludlow Street. Only a few more blocks until our first stop: a vibrant bar on the Lower East Side called Pianos.
The Sound of Silence by Liz Marquardt
I used to be so naïve that I genuinely thought I was ‘one of the guys’ in high school because I loved sports and muscle cars as much as they did. And while that was likely the reason I had many male friends, it never occurred to me