To Work

by PF Duda

Originally published on May 1, 2013

as i drive to work in a rag tag pickup truck, shifting and shifting the gears rolling and rolling, i glance to my right over the swamp as a white-blue sky breaks over the rain-laden landscape, voluptuous black swirling eddies of water dangerously high. but only for a moment as a sharp curve of road [...]

Low Pleasures

by Darren C. Demaree

Originally published on May 1, 2013

It was a clubhouse with fake phones in it, when I first, without malice, called bitch into the empty receiver, the girl I had tried to kiss, holding it up to my chin, teaching me how to swear. Then, those fuck fuck fucks I strung together while my youthful body found the reality of my [...]

Morning’s Broken Armor

by Sy Roth

Originally published on May 1, 2013

Squeaky crawls the moon’s light Falling briskly against the chinks in the window Uneasy sleep A voluble accompaniment to An out-of-work cello.   Scooting, crawly insects beat against it With a frenzy of scrawled brevity Tattooed on its soft shell.   Horns bleat somewhere in the inky distance. Town criers bellowing news to a somnolent [...]

Smoke

by Marius Surleac

Originally published on May 1, 2013

don’t steal this moment from me I want to shape it after your likeness light it and step within the smoke that dared to come over you   I’ll dip the ash in the mere that reached my knees I will brush your eyebrows on a booklet of clay – so you can waft them [...]

River Rappahannock

by Jeffrey Winter

Originally published on April 1, 2013

I. Some have stood flapping on the bridge’s edge with their cars still running behind them, resolved to jump, to shatter themselves against its surface and make its cyclonic approach the last thing they see on earth.   I’ll admit that the river would make a nice final image, but I’d rather it happen by [...]

Ridicule

by Nivedita Jayaram

Originally published on April 1, 2013

I think I heard It first in your voice So many years ago, Father, those breakfast Table conversations, Your face hidden behind The newspaper, so early In the morning, When I told you My unfinished dreams It was Rhett Butler who Taught me the art Of ridicule, my teenage years I spent mastering his tone, [...]

Origami Hands

by A. A. Hernandez

Originally published on April 1, 2013

A man should watch his woman’s hands carefully, for in these origami fans folded graciously over her knee are a million subtleties.   When necessary a wise woman keeps despair in her hands, while the rest of her body mimics the person opposite her. But when scolded, a woman sits   with her back as [...]

Love

by Laurin Macios

Originally published on April 1, 2013

after George Herbert   An empty bed in an empty house, the faucet dripping slowly. One bite out of two chocolates in a box of bitter truffles. A small hand and a larger hand slicked with sweat, pushing back hair. The car trunk left open overnight. Waking from a dream where everything was grey. An [...]

Sleeping with My Dog

by Gary J. Whitehead

Originally published on April 1, 2013

Even with deer ticks, even with fleas even with his snores, breaths I can’t time with mine in those moments before both of us fall asleep, when his back foot begins kicking like a musician keeping a beat, and the white of his filmy eye rises into the night sky of his doggy mind even [...]

Grapes, Juice And Trashy Magazines

by Laura Purcell

Originally published on March 1, 2013

She looks at me with disdain in her eyes as I pile today’s spoils onto the bedside table. Grapes, juice, trashy magazines sandwiches, because she hates hospital food says she wouldn’t feed it to her dog. I attempt an engaging smile as she glances at the offerings. Come on, I silently plead, eat something dammit. [...]