By MEL ARTHUR, SARAH WU, and GABBY AVENA Mel Arthur:Once the theme of Thing Theory was suggested, I could hear everyone’s (including myself) mind go blank. The collective question of what even is Thing Theory permeated almost every meeting. Sarah even asked me to do a mock Q&A where I attempted, using my muse, Toni…Continue Reading Spring 2024
MARIAM BESHIDZE
When does a body become a thing? / When it stares from beyond the glass / At the conglomeration of people surrounding it, / Shedding tears on a Persian carpet. / When it cannot smell the patchwork / of dead flowers laying on top of it. …Continue Reading Untitled
SARAH WU
and i knew it intimately, the wooden door that sat in front of my room. it was a friendly presence, solid, and comforting. it held up the drooping ceiling of the white, caving plaster, and kept the little mice in the kitchen out of my bed. …Continue Reading there was a door that i knew
AIDAN COOPER
Where the chunks notice childhood / behind the awning of our mouths. How we’re domesticated dogs / with teeth sharp only for peanut butter. / Move me to the place you learned the crust carries …Continue Reading Peanut Butter
SARAH DOWN
slick slippery sticky / I try I try I try / to wash this nauseating nostalgia off. / my nineteen-year-old knuckles / gently bruised – busted yellow / by my fifteen years of fingers / searching blindly under the couch for my nine year old self …Continue Reading CARMEX
PRISCILLA LEE
Never in my life have I been on a road trip. That’s some American shit, and I’m not American, only read tons of American fiction, and I mean Oregon-to-Massachusetts-lorry-truck tons. Never been to America, don’t know if they use “tonnes” or “tons,” or if they call them lorries. …Continue Reading I Write American
NICOLE ITKIN
When I reach out, what am I reaching– / for? / (my) / Flowers blearily / stare out the windows, / Orchids: at midnight, red-robed
They kiss
the glass, lips pursued,
smudging the Clear
they’ll forget about;
Soothing,
forgetting…Continue Reading Tell me if you’ll answer, and I’ll remember how to ask
MIKE ROSENTHAL
Before grabbing the knocker, Munroe pulled on his gloves so he wouldn’t pick up accidental prints. The morning job was a mundane one, and the clients wouldn’t notice his dedication to the rules, but Munroe had principles. He recalled the comment his boss left…Continue Reading Lingering Touch Imprint Services Case 0822-1
MEL ARTHUR
In the shower, the hot water has taken time to start a revolution. I figured now is not the time to put my hands together to ask for grace. Though I wonder what could satisfy me, hear the hum from the back of my knees…Continue Reading Self Portrait As The Thing Left in the End
GRACIE ROWLAND
My father’s oversized leather jacket is the first item I’d save in a fire. It has a broken zipper from my heated impatience and a splotch of neon green acrylic paint on the left pocket from my tired clumsiness….Continue Reading Remembrance
MADI SUH
these days all my thoughts have begun to feel like letters to you / sometimes it hurts to think. talking to you is easier. / and so, / hi. / i have not been creative as of late. / lately you have begun to take residence inside some part of me; in particular, you do spend a lot of time in my head. / hi….Continue Reading Dear Diary
LEYDN MCEVOY
The other day, you pointed out the window / to the glorious hills we call mountains. / These trees tall with secrets, ours– / their tops we cannot see, only dream to, and I forget how little your hand fixes your hair. …Continue Reading May this Bald Body Bring Us
LELAND CULVER
I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know how long it will be before you read this. The company that ran this facility—that runs this whole moon, really—they’re powerful, and a lot of smart people work for them, but they’re certainly not safe, and they don’t tell the truth….Continue Reading To You
JORGE RODRIGUEZ JR.
Well, I figured I shouldn’t go alone. The woods grow too thick out past the first few miles. After them woods, it’s real tranquil. The sky grows arid, the world seems still out there. A fire goes nice, but too much fire runs the real big holes dry. If you look in the right spots, you can still find ones that light. Once it lights, it’s good for a night or two. That’s why we oughta head out early. …Continue Reading Fools Taking Root
JIHYUN PAIK
1. A thing in the sense of being present-at-hand … / 2. Thing in the sense in which it means whatever is named but which includes also plans, decisions, reflections, loyalties, actions, historical things ……Continue Reading all these things a( )part
GABBY AVENA
If it’s okay, I would like to start with the tree, / tenderlined and vanishing. / Focus your eyes on the leaves / which are not leaves as much as / they are bushels which are not bushels / as much as they are clots of cotton fiber…Continue Reading Slow Death of the Generic Tree Drawing
MACKENZIE DUNSON
The first thing that you gave me was a drawing. Scribbled in the margins of my notes, insignficant in theory, but boundless in reality. It was a figure, one that I didn’t know, maybe one that you had made up in that head of yours, maybe one that came from one of the many shows that you loved and I don’t think I’d ever me able to understand. …Continue Reading The Things You Gave Me