HANNAH KWON
and this salt would spread quickly, like grief / always does, trickling into red pepper paste / and flakes of anchovy skin, salt desecrating / the soup we’d double-dip our spoons into, / so when metal met our lips, …Continue Reading family dinner: still life in silence and salt
Category: 2024 Fall
Devour
BRIANNA ZHANG
It is baffling that these people garner millions of likes, considering how they spend twenty four hours like it’s nothing! Sleeping through a third of the day—unbelievable. Ten minutes of meditation? It took me one hour to complete university……Continue Reading Devour
Mango
BEA AGBI
I didn’t want the mango. I didn’t / want it I was full Just let me have a bit / but my mother said no bites, / peeling and putting it / into my hands, yellowredgreen soft / and malleable in its ripeness, eat / the whole thing. …Continue Reading Mango
Communion
CHELA CUNNINGHAM
i want to study your lines of (division) / the trinities that make you (divine). / and when the Christian missionaries walk by us / i’ll ask them if they’ve heard of my god …Continue Reading Communion
Teatime
VENUMI GAMAGE
Ginger tea to cure a cold. Ginger tea with a heaping of honey to fix a sore throat…….Continue Reading Teatime
“Dear A Gong”
EVELYN CHI
阿公,jiă bà buāi? 你吃了沒?(Taiwanese and Mandarin for, “Have you eaten?” This is also a common greeting among friends and family members, since hospitality and food are an important part……Continue Reading “Dear A Gong”
In Lieu of Language
MADI SUH
in lieu of language, / i stuff my mouth. / i do not know how to say the words for all the banchan. / i only know how to eat, / how to be hungry, how to ask for more….Continue Reading In Lieu of Language
The Game Room
By TOBY ROSEWATER
Peeling floral wallpaper covers every corner of the senior center’s game room, wilting like an unfurling flower come springtime. The room holds five round tables, and every Sunday, the Austin senior card group fills every seat. …Continue Reading The Game Room
konbini
By MIKIKO SUGA
Every summer is a tradition of disappearing. There are times to be corporeal, and other times to dematerialize. It may simply be a matter of traversing impermanent boundaries, where one simply consumes what is in front of them. There is no need to contemplate too deeply, because something is always at risk of breaking if I do. …Continue Reading konbini
mandarin
ELLA LIN
and she peels me / another mandarin. i imagine / we must look strange, / our mouths dripping juice like broken faucets / into the night. her black hair / falling further, with nothing below. the broken mirror hanging / above wet paint on bathroom walls….Continue Reading mandarin
Christmas Gift
By SARAH WU
I learned to be wrapped from a young age. Underneath a Christmas tree, I sat below their pine bottoms. Dangling lights brushed my forehead. Taught how presents should be dressed in lovely colors. Taught to be an object, paper wrapping hiding the curve of the natural body within…Continue Reading Christmas Gift
Orange Me Open
ELSA LYONS
Does the orange want to be peeled? Tenderly / I push my fingernail through her stubborn rind, // reveal the bulge of her white-veined flesh. / She’s almost throbbing with juices. They’re almost // circulating through her. It’s almost music….Continue Reading Orange Me Open
Forticus, the Blanket Fort
GABBY AVENA
A hold unto our- / selves, hidden under blankets / that color the air // red is the evening cupped in / eggnog and projector light…Continue Reading Forticus, the Blanket Fort
Honey Cake
KATERYNA HAVRYSHCHUK
The oldest among them, Ryta lit the match. In a blink, gas swallowed the heat and burped out a blue holo around the burner. A piece of butter in the pan began to soften. A clump of honey, however, didn’t rush to lose shape.
…Continue Reading Honey Cake
Bite-Size
WILLOW DELP
She is seventeen years old, and she has mastered the art of cruelty. She brings people close enough, lures them with her sweetness — her fair skin, her honeyed voice. She emanates not just a sort of radiance…Continue Reading Bite-Size
Growing Pains
By FEDORA LIU
So sugary sweet / It rotted my teeth // Back then there were boundless pools of sap here / I thought I would never go hungry // I thought I would live forever….Continue Reading Growing Pains
Spiced Apple Cake
MACKENZIE DUNSON
The last thing my mother made for me was an apple spice cake. She always took pride in it because of the expansive apple tree that was the luminary of our backyard. It has always been the most beautiful thing about our house. The branches reaching for the sky, leaves and breath filling my own lungs, its fruit filling my stomach, and its blossoms filling my mind….Continue Reading Spiced Apple Cake
Fall 2024
By MEL ARTHUR, SARAH WU, and GABBY AVENA The theme of Snack Time feels like a theme that needs to be shouted at the top of one’s lungs. Imagine if we all collectively went: SNACK TIME! SNACK TIME! SNACK TIME! over and over again, how disruptive that may seem but also how joyous. I like…Continue Reading Fall 2024
Rose Colored Boxes
RUTH ZURAW
Our morning-stretched shadows / graze, overlap on the pavement— / heat curling around calves / in gentle waves. …Continue Reading Rose Colored Boxes
Bringing
LILA SCHLISSEL
She will bring me gifts / teeth and black licorice lips cradling some / bird / with hollow bones / and lay / it / in my lap / unscathed, if confused / and / covered in a little spit…Continue Reading Bringing
One More Bite
OLIVIA KELLER
Every day is the same. / Wake up, go to class, do work, go to bed. / Like clockwork – tirelessly stuck in a loop going tick by tock. / Boredom sets in and my thoughts wonder….Continue Reading One More Bite
Fragment #2 (Lysis)
By AIDAN COOPER
You river your fingers, / I dip my toes in, water us // until lotus flowers ring / the space between our knuckles….Continue Reading Fragment #2 (Lysis)
Gouda-locks and the Three Éclairs
LAINEY NOGA
Long ago, in a world untouched by the erosion of decorum, Gouda-locks, a young pastry chef…….Continue Reading Gouda-locks and the Three Éclairs
REMEMBERING…SNACK TIME
SOFIA AHMED SEID
There was once an interlude in our days we called snack time……..Continue Reading REMEMBERING…SNACK TIME
STANDING IN THE DOOR
ELIZA BECKER
On Sundays I work the eleven to seven shift and see Louie…..Continue Reading STANDING IN THE DOOR
mutagenesis
KATE BESTALL
feed me love & i’ll crack it
open like a sunflower….
…Continue Reading mutagenesis
A TOAST TO AVARICE
MYLES KAPLAN
Looking up, the splendid clamor of
silver utensils……..
…Continue Reading A TOAST TO AVARICE
EAT MY HEART
MARIAM BESHIDZE
When I was born, my father put his hand inside my chest and took a hold of my tiny heart…….Continue Reading EAT MY HEART
It Will Rain
JORGE RODRIGUEZ JR
Did it rain last night? No, but it probably will today…
…Continue Reading It Will Rain
NATURE WALK
AIDAN CAHILL
One minute, sunlight. The next, and rain poured in sheets through the trees…….Continue Reading NATURE WALK