by Gale Acuff When I can’t fall asleep I think about my dog, Caesar, run over long ago – thirty-two years it’s been: I spend the night at a friend’s house. My father picks me up next day, and, halfway home, at a yield sign, where Post Oak Tritt runs into Sandy Plains, Son, your dog was hit by a Read More
Author: Andre
Urgent Notice
by Mileva Anastasiadou Controversial topics, previously imprisoned, have escaped the history closet and threaten to ruin social and family gatherings. Rumors go the escape has been enabled by recent riots that have been going on around the globe, in regions previously considered part of the civilized world, which in turn have been fueled by events which have been destabilizing predetermined Read More
The Pluralist’s Dry Outer Ear
by Colin James Discipline is a line of taut bums, soliloquies for the seated. Conformation has arrived. The cart driver will be waiting at the train station gate. It is a short journey to the castle. You are expected. Introduce yourself generally. Delve into the claret. The youngest daughter may wake you in your twin bed as you sheepishly sleep Read More
Sociopathy in Starbucks
by Kristin Garth It can happen anywhere to women even in the coffee shop where you write, employees so polite you are given a Christmas card, wee tree, evergreen bright inked signatures, iced sugar cookies that they know you like. You think I have a space maybe I have to pay for, little chit-chat between the sonnets, look up, see Read More
I Just Wanted to Feel Normal
by Lamar Neal Those who were supposed to love me Walked me to death’s door, in Jesus’s name. I was a young child who couldn’t see And those prayers weren’t helping my shame. I was always a little different But no I was not made incorrectly. I didn’t care I was Heaven spent I just wanted to feel sanity. Sometimes, Read More
Prospect
by Normand Lepine “Begin by always expecting good things to happen.” – Tom Hopkins They parked around the corner to stay out of view of the house they were coming to see. Nick and Tara had heard rumors of a large house where elephants who were not quite like the others came to hang out. The rumors were vague and Read More
Elephant Pond
by Ashley Bullen-Cutting curving slats cross sorrel watersdirty replication in a surface shared with the swaying of green truncated souls stop midwayperceptions pricked to mistral conversehoary spectral splashing veteran oaks storify in squeaksrecollecting ashen anatomiesquesting elephantidae snouts little ones gawp and clapinfant hands pokingbetween vertical boardsreaching for the past Note from the author: The Elephant Pond is a lovely habitat Read More
Ferment
“Cheers,” I raise my glass. Pendo uses a forelimb to clink me, then dips his trunk for a taste. As the scotch squirts into his mouth, he rumbles. “Now that,” he murmurs, eyelids half-lowered in pleasure, “is worth keeping you humans around for.” Pendo’s huge mouth curls up in a smile. I frown over my laughter and poke at the Read More
Ironic Honeymoon
by Tammy L. Breitweiser The officer told me Grayson didn’t feel anything. The impact was quick. It’s what the officer claimed anyway. What I will tell you is I bolted upright in bed at 4:56 a.m. and knew. I just knew. I can assure you he felt the impact because I felt it. It had been a fairly typical morning. Read More
Moveable Feast
by Ray Ball, PhD In memory of Jan During her funeral, which I could not attend, I wondered why there are so few Moveable Feasts. She told me once, while we were doing something mundane, like getting frozen yogurt at TCBY, that one of them is the day of St. Sarkis. That Christian general who marched to Antioch, but realized Read More