TAYLOR HOGANSON
The world creaks under my feet as I climb. I find small handholds in the spaces between pale bricks as I lift myself three stories into the buildings that loom over the wooden street below….Continue Reading Ocellatus
Category: 2025 Fall
Three’s a Crowd
MIKE ROSENTHAL
It takes three people for a good game of cards, and it takes three drinks to really become yourself. / The bartender was short one of each….Continue Reading Three’s a Crowd
Now, and at the Hour of Our Death
EVELYN SOTO
The boy who sat beside me in the second grade would whisper to me, in fleeting moments when / our teacher turned her back. / In your bathroom. At midnight.
…Continue Reading Now, and at the Hour of Our Death
End Times Theology
KATE BESTALL
a poem is a time machine & rules of time travel apply: you know, / there is nothing you can change that hasn’t already been changed. / in this one, the rain rises. we fall…Continue Reading End Times Theology
Black Longing
SIANI AMMONS
I turned myself to myself & became yr teeth. / I turned yr unfurled teeth into beams of moonlight & was / da pinned legs of a chair. I turned da chair to a kiss…Continue Reading Black Longing
The Wind-Down
HARRY FINNEGAN
And we wind down the years and the months and the weeks and the days and the hours and the minutes and the seconds until we end up where we were….Continue Reading The Wind-Down
The Angel is in the Bathroom
SARAH GOLDSCHMIDT-HOPKINSON
And maybe I’m imagining the halo but I swear she’s glowing. Imagine lighting up a room. No, really. Let me have this. The bloodshot eyes and the shaking hands and the sink to wash it all away….Continue Reading The Angel is in the Bathroom
The Rabbi(’s?) Sermon
TOBEY ROSEWATER
A little over two months ago, United Reform Congregation Beth Tikvah Tiferet Shalom v’Or Hadash HaChaverim Shel Mishkan Shefa Simcha — The Peace, Light, Renewal, and Friendship Synagogue…Continue Reading The Rabbi(’s?) Sermon
Cyclops’ Folly
MICHAEL ANTWI-AYIM
Bodies curl inwards as their souls search for a leave / The cave around them trembles in his rage / His roar rips through the stagnant air / his foul earthen cage…Continue Reading Cyclops’ Folly
Final Draft
JUDE TAIT
The members of The Insinuator trickled into the lecture hall like slow-drip cold brew, the go-to drink for discerning collegiate litmaggers….Continue Reading Final Draft
water ghost
AVA WONG
my name is but a whisper on / your grandmother’s lips— // syllables itchy like ink / on a wet page, fingers // reaching for a memory, for / the stone they tied…Continue Reading water ghost
good for a gallon
SAM HUANG
GIVE / ME BLOOD / GIVE ME AIR- / PLANES SINKING / SHIPS DEEP INTO / THE SUNLIGHT GIVE / ME CLOWNS DANCING
IN THE WHITES OF EYES / WIDE OPEN AND WATCHING / GIVE ME BASSLINES SHAKING / EVERY BONE UNTIL THE BODIES…Continue Reading good for a gallon
RED RED RED
AMAYA RANATUNGE
I. Red Blood / Red is the blood running through aliens, / strangers of the stars, / amongst invisible borders of burning galaxies. / Red are the veins trembling / when spaceships crash into …Continue Reading RED RED RED
Bartender Hypnosis
HADLEY HUNT
When I serve Bloody Marys / On late Sunday mornings, / I sneak a straw-taste /
while they await garnish. // My tongue rolls on my lips. / It may take infinite Sundays until I stop / Wincing at the spice….Continue Reading Bartender Hypnosis
On-Thames
LUKE DEEBLE
“After all, when in Rome.”
Clare leaned back and laughed, her cheeks flushed crimson, and her eyes unbelievably wide then half-shut, three distinct lines forming at each outward-facing corner of her eyes….Continue Reading On-Thames
Scary Story
LAINEY NOGA
Samantha bounded down the stairs. In the nighttime hush of her unfinished basement she joined her two young companions, who had been huddled around a worn game board and a box of Domino’s pizza….Continue Reading Scary Story
Can we be friends?
SHRUTI SANGAMKAR
It was juvenile, the way she spoke to its whispers underneath. They played hide-and-seek every night as she stuffed her head under a pillow that was just a little warm. She hated the feeling….Continue Reading Can we be friends?
Won’t You Stay Awhile
CLARA CHIU
She is tying a ribbon, now. If only she could hear me. Oh, the things I would say. / I want to tell her she’s lovely, like my daughter, glassy-eyed and eternal. / I want to make her lovely, like I made my daughter, drifting in the water. / I’m pressing hard against the glass, against the surface, and I can almost reach her….Continue Reading Won’t You Stay Awhile
Nighttime Ballad for a Green-Blue Song
HANNAH KWON
I am asking you to dismantle me / ever-so tenderly, to blind me / from my own undoing. Tether me, / instead, to the doe’s glassy eyes, / so I may enshroud myself /
from what I cannot unsee. …Continue Reading Nighttime Ballad for a Green-Blue Song
The Home of a Firefly
RIVKAH LEFKOWITZ
Kindnesses that shackle. Skirts with slits. Years that ache. Mantises who pray. Words that taste like deflated whipped cream. Vending machines. Skills which are only useful in another time on another planet. Phobias that deserve mentions in textbooks. Bananas who withdraw when peeled as if ashamed….Continue Reading The Home of a Firefly
from LaGuardia, with love
AVA NAIR
but she turned to me, yesterday morning / & asked, with sour lemons / in her mouth: / what kind of psychopath / places life and death / so close together— / and still calls it home?…Continue Reading from LaGuardia, with love
Bloody Mary 3/5 Stars (Google Reviews)
KATELYN PARROTT
Acidic tomato, puree pustules bursting caustic / against my tongue and salt, / sizzling like hot coals against wet / lips, humming tastebuds dancing / on their tips while heat / plumes up the vent of / my nose. …Continue Reading Bloody Mary 3/5 Stars (Google Reviews)
The Long Way Home
CHRISTOPHER ONSOMU
The curtains of my heart / Were shredded years ago. / A woman, like a lioness, / Tore them — and tore them slow / And left the cut debris / Scattered across the floor. / I’m not avoiding just their love / But what’s behind my door: …Continue Reading The Long Way Home
Strokes of Vermilion
SARRIA JOE
I am not incapable; I am self-serving. I’m not scared of you knowing that; I am terrified of you recognizing how cruel I can be. I truly wish it were a guise, but your burning torch barely damaged my velvet walls. …Continue Reading Strokes of Vermilion
High Perch
ALEXANDER WOMACK
I’ve heard that no one was built for this, once. Years ago. Kind of a fleeting echo, now. But people aren’t built to fight in wars or go to space either, and that’s what helmets and spacesuits and shells are for. …Continue Reading High Perch
How I Want to Die
AIDAN COOPER
I don’t know how asparagus grows. / I buckle into my mysteries like belts. / Sometimes I’m asked / why I love the rural life, / & I don’t. I just have a need / to point at earth….Continue Reading How I Want to Die
Blood of ‘02
JORGE RODRÍGUEZ JR
There’s something past that shed, I heard it, Uncle. / Let’s go on and look then. I don’t want no more of them bastards gettin in. / I aint seen any around here no more, Danny said. I think its too smelly in there for them, trying to get Uncle to go back inside. …Continue Reading Blood of ‘02
to live, to bleed
WILLOW DELP
Only the scarlet, spilled across the altar, produces reanimation. Fruits and flowers are empty decor, merely embellishing a ritual that demands real devotion. Real sacrifice. …Continue Reading to live, to bleed
Blood and Spice Tolerance: The Art of Feeling Nothing
DIANE KIM
She got used to the unkempt, frizzy brown hair that she never bothered to brush anymore. She got used to the dry, cracked lips that were drained of color, more of a starchy beige than pink. And eventually, she even got used to her eyes….Continue Reading Blood and Spice Tolerance: The Art of Feeling Nothing
Starvation
GRACE ESCOE
When I was handed a silver spoon / Put it to my lips / As they told me to open wide / I swallowed without a second thought / The funny thing is / Most people do not tell you the dangers / Of excess/ Of being too full …Continue Reading Starvation