Birth Diary

By Takako Kamura - Apr 5, 2021

Your kick was powerful and it was very challenging to change your diaper. I actually felt this kick when you were in my tummy, which made me think you were a boy.

Real Love

By Lindsay Lerman - Mar 19, 2021

I was 14, older than him, capable of stopping him. But I’d been caught off guard when he said “Hey, c’mere,” and I just stood there, paralyzed, looking at the cat, the bucket, the hose on the ground next to him.

King of the Sewer Rats

By Cavin Bryce Gonzalez - Mar 1, 2021

Waited for reality to prove itself.

Gravitated naturally toward the gutter. 

Heard sewage down there.

Crouched down, peeked my head inside. 

Three Poems

By Allie Rowbottom - Feb 26, 2021

My mother, who left 
to live in a safe house 
next to a sheep farm,
ate lamb chops every night

Aubade

By Nicola Maye Goldberg - Jan 22, 2021

When I think about you in prison, so medicated
you couldn’t hold anything
in, I want to kick the guards’ teeth

Two Poems

By Kelly Schirmann - Jan 20, 2021

The New World arrived
when we were unconscious

excerpt from Alice Knott

By Blake Butler - Dec 15, 2020

At New York’s MoMA, Henri Rousseau’s The Dream (1910) is attacked with a straight razor by a local college professor of physics, who after screaming “I am the fuck of your reality” stabs the image of a full moon in the painting’s upper right-hand corner eleven times before restraint.

Lobelia

By Raegan Bird - Dec 3, 2020

I give my arms a more thorough wash in the farmhouse sink then start to burp the blue drum barrels of sauerkraut.
      From the window I see the older child in the yard, slapping his hand on the flat stump of a recently cut birch.

In Umbria

By Colin Mylrea - Sep 21, 2020

In the morning light, the void of thy lips
Parted as the ropes of the bee skep

Local Favorite

By Sebastian Castillo - Aug 24, 2020

All of the tours start with a visit to the center of the village, where a boxy statue of a dog sits, as if placed by accident. Invariably, a tourist will ask of its history and significance, as the statue does not bear a placard. At this point, the guide will tell a story.

Slops

By Gary Lutz - May 29, 2020

I was midway through my shadowed, septic thirties. I had been hired as a generalist. What I taught was vague and interdisciplinary and unchallengeable. Whatever I said, it was bound to be correct up to a point.

Cancel Me

By Honor Levy - May 21, 2020

Max is canceled. Oliver is canceled. Kian is canceled. Evelyn is canceled. Gideon is canceled. Rob is canceled. Bryce is canceled. Carter is canceled.

Cool Air Pro

By Jon Lindsey - May 14, 2020

Next morning, the a/c went bust. I awoke to a new way of life. Not quite flora or fauna. It was jock itch. Monkey butt. Gutter nuts.

What She Could Not Make

By Babak Lakghomi - Mar 30, 2020

The man gave her a long stick, showed her the road to the first monastery. He showed her to strike the ground with her stick when she was in danger.

Feed the Ducks

By Harris Lahti - Feb 20, 2020

“This is all wrong,” I say. I put my hand on Phil’s shoulder. Every surrounding sound feeds into the strangeness; every distant dog bark and car alarm, mothers calling to their children at the playground, the crush of radios. “This is not right at all.”

Do It Like This

By Dalton Monk - Feb 17, 2020

This whole thing—I felt like my life was on the brink of something. And it was, obviously. “We’re going to be parents,” I said.