By SARAH WU, MEL ARTHUR, and GABBY AVENA Mel Arthur:Rot, in simultaneous existence with crumble, disintegrate, stain, decompose, corrupt, sink, worsen, wither, descend, fester, and spoil. To inhabit the space of terrible beauty where the world and the bodies that exist within it circle around what has been made absent. Rotted as an attempt to…Continue Reading Fall 2023
Month: December 2023
to an evergreen who is me written by a self of mine far from here
AIDAN COOPER
there is no way to get you, not / really. // there is only marble column in rippling bloodstain — / the leaves are clattering, you clutch your breath and your coffee…Continue Reading to an evergreen who is me written by a self of mine far from here
Red
SHREYA HEGDE
A Jet moved across the sky / a Meteor to hit the Sun awry, / yet it escaped unscathed / saving the Sun’s fate!…Continue Reading Red
Arachnophobia
EDWYN CHOI
Most people are unable to feel spiders, their spindly legs and round bodies. The species does not matter — recluse, widow, trapdoor; they all run and climb the same…Continue Reading Arachnophobia
Life after the phone call ends
JACKELINE FERNANDES
After the phone call ends the wet cobblestone beneath my feet zooms into focus as the cracks between the rocks partition my field of vision and I look upwards as the world begins to recrystallize around me…Continue Reading Life after the phone call ends
This place and the other
MADI SUH
It was on the corner of Wilder on the way to the 7-Eleven / that you first stopped me in my tracks, and I didn’t notice / the car that would have killed me…Continue Reading This place and the other
Rot Girl Summer
TAPTI SEN
Decay exists as an extant form of life, or so they say. So even my rotting, motionless body must be continuing to live and breathe. Is it bearable? It could be, if I so wished it. Do I wish it?…Continue Reading Rot Girl Summer
Roadkill
LILA SCHLISSEL
The best thing about having / two eyes wriggling around in your / head like minnows is that they / have already learned to blur / and your retina is cracked and crumbling…Continue Reading Roadkill
Prisoner’s Dilemma
ANNIKA BAJAJ
“I think I might be in love with you.” Y leans against the cell wall with hands behind his head, foot tapping against the cell wall. (The other cell wall; the cell was very small.)…Continue Reading Prisoner’s Dilemma
Twin-Sized Beds, Weather Conundrums, & Starry Smiles
SIANI-SIMONE AMMONS
Typically, he swipes up & I think he’s a sonnet-eyed Robin Hood. Who/ am I kidding? I am a romantic who believes time intervals between text / messages sent & how quickly he doesn’t respond & how…Continue Reading Twin-Sized Beds, Weather Conundrums, & Starry Smiles
brainrot
SERIN HWANG
some songs make me think of you. / earworms till through my brain matter, / electric guitar leaving earthen grooves in my body. / i retrace lines like i would retrace my steps in an old forest,…Continue Reading brainrot
Falling Awake
SARAH WU
Waking up is like falling down a rollercoaster. In the crowded amusement park, this is what I tell my brother and mother and father. …Continue Reading Falling Awake
Voided
RANIA ADOUIM
As a kid, I used to lock myself in the bathroom and try to imagine what death was like…..Continue Reading Voided
Properiamphimetaphysics
PRISCILLA LEE
In the beginning, God took the greatest dump of all Time, squeezed time and space through the white hot speck of what would be the universe. …Continue Reading Properiamphimetaphysics
The Maw
MIKE ROSENTHAL
The sorrowful keening of the crowd pierced the clear, dry air on the plateau. They huddled together, staining the dusty ground with their crying and the clear air with their wailing….Continue Reading The Maw
Toe Rotten
MIKAYAH PARSONS
I am just a body— / A body with words inscribed, / With meanings taped over my mouth, / And phrases to my thighs….Continue Reading Toe Rotten
introduction with no end
MEL ARTHUR
2. / Sometime in late, / i fragment at my being, watch my body turn itself up in the shape of a palm that claws at my feelings, marking my gut with heaps of silence that ever so often bursts into sound….Continue Reading introduction with no end
Shooba
AWA DIOP
Every Sunday at dusk, her moans dragged down our Sunday sun and beckoned it to set. The unnatural sound always rang too loud and plastered to every inch of space….Continue Reading Shooba
the horror inside, beautiful faces
MACKENZIE DUNSON
My mother liked to style her hair based on the white magazines, Vogue, Cosmo, the nice ones that she had to get a special subscription for, 5.00 dollars every month and delivered straight to our front door….Continue Reading the horror inside, beautiful faces
Do Zombies Dream of Electric Guitar
M LAWSON
Up here, on the podium, is our subject’s soul-liver during the first stage of zombification… infection of the brain is a Hollywood lie….Continue Reading Do Zombies Dream of Electric Guitar
Statement of Matthew Ingersoll, Regarding Earthworms
LELAND CULVER
I’ve always hated earthworms, you know. Repulsive slimy wriggly little monsters. I know they’re supposed to help turn over the old soil redistribute the nutrients from all the rotting things, but I can’t see them like that…Continue Reading Statement of Matthew Ingersoll, Regarding Earthworms
Ruby and Rose
BEA AGBI
It began around the time I got back together with Booker. They thought he was too simple, too easy to read. He wants what everyone else wants….Continue Reading Ruby and Rose
Under the Sun
BRYAN JIMENEZ FLORES
It was tradition that when I’d finish enough of my work I’d take the rest to the kitchen table and accompany my mom and the chores….Continue Reading Under the Sun
I Wanna Show You Someone
JORGE RODRIGUEZ JR
Their father threw a faded quilt in the middle seat where Ulysses would sit. Ulysses developed the habit of wetting himself when he felt the slightest urge to go. …Continue Reading I Wanna Show You Someone
becomeingto
JIHYUN PAIK
here; / take before / you, see, behold / extravagance extraordinarily unceasing in splendor / traces lingering without diffusion…Continue Reading becomeingto
Choice
GRACIE ROWLAND
Georgiana and I tangled ourselves in each other’s arms on the stairs to the loft. We were sitting in the only place we knew to sit whenever our Mama and Daddy fought….Continue Reading Choice
How to Fall in ROT
GRACE ESCOE
I am not ashamed / That I have not known much intimacy / That I never had a hand that fit the curvature of my own / That I never had someone whisper my name…Continue Reading How to Fall in ROT
I’m Sorry, I Need A Moment —
GABBY AVENA
I mean — I need a moment to move through — an image to see with — an orange on an altar, rotting on speedlapse…Continue Reading I’m Sorry, I Need A Moment —
Saudade
CLARA CHIU
The envelopes began arriving over two months ago: blank white rectangles slipped through the mailslot at odd hours of the day. …Continue Reading Saudade
Falling Apart
EMILY WYKOFF
Will this love die if unattended? / Abscising our petals, like peonies decaying / Feed for squirrels and worms and everything else / That wants to eat us alive …Continue Reading Falling Apart