After the Charleston

by Elodie Rose Barnes I’d never been to the Dingo before, and so you took me by the arm. 3 a.m. at the Coupole was deadly, you said. Perhaps Nancy will be at the Dingo to liven things up. My drooping eyelids and numb feet – too much dancing – followed you down the boulevard, drifting from one pool of Read More

Radio Advice

by Thomas M. McDade My Sox were facing Chicago – Pale Hose, as newspapers said, headed for a pennant, and called the Go-Go Sox: sinker, slider specialist Bob Shaw to start. My dad kept a radio on his bedside table, volume low for my mother’s sake when he couldn’t sleep. He hunted the dial for interesting stuff. He’d picked up Read More

The Armadillo

by Jerry K. Robbins Of all creatures the armadillo is most fineIt is one part turtle one part porcupineChasing bugs with an anteater snoutStubby legs to waddle about Known to speak French with savoir faireAlso a sense of humor rareA preference for puns and plays on wordsFits in comfortably with computer nerds So, when my friends ask me,“Ever had one Read More

Weekly Weekend Washing Ritual

by Frances Tate Check weather forecast. Cast skeptical eyes skyward. Flip a coin. Load washing machine. Finger hovers, nuclear nervous over the start button. Commit… door locks, water rushes. No going back now. Cycle completes. Dozens of socks and smalls damply dangle like chandelier pendants from two, one-hook carousels; the washing line equivalent of a cyclist’s quick-release wheel. I promote Read More

The Pushcart Prize 2020 Nominations

With this week’s theme of “Endings,” we thought it appropriate to share our nominations for The Pushcart Prize 2020. For those unfamiliar, Pushcart Press produces a yearly anthology to showcase work from small book presses and little magazines. (Despite the pachyderm, we’re really a little fish, so you know.) Submissions for the anthology, however, must come from the online publication Read More

fragmented no. 8

by DAH 1. … from now on, a reshuffling of diction,word-acrobatics, perspectives gleaming withnew realities: somebody built an orange treeagainst the other things around it, to feaston boiled eggs in the cold hand of a plate,the convulsions of the world can only goso far: it’s a matter of course … … regression is a retelling of history, mind-formsthat are slipping: Read More

Plane Takes Off from Chicago

by Thomas Murray Plane takes off from Chicago; touches down in Orange County.One with a young man; the other with another, bald and gray.In between many worlds, lives, and dreams passed by.Bound to a god I can never see, but sure I feel It with me. Going from the Gobi to the 405 is a full-time job.My thoughts like winter Read More

Hard Rule Enclosing

by Michael Igoe Swindled by awetaken from othersit held me fromsaved, raptured momentsIt’s frolic, a panic;the count of blood dropsin the heave of the gut.It reaps a cryptic fortuneunleashed, in vast array,makes a deal like madwith uninvited guests.Unsure, motive grows clearerin the twilight of my lifetimeI someday must clear out.My secret battle with time,Does it freeze within me? Michael Igoe, Read More

class: aves; kind: unknown

by Ahimaz Rajessh the bird that swoops downtearing through noxious clouds,being no bird of prey, lives onlyon chemical, nuclear wastes. the beats of its wings, they say, changethe course of impending cyclones.its beak digs through containers shippedfrom global north, buried in global south. its breath lights up spying glo-geodrones & electromagnetic spectrum.the whiff of its feather, they say,brings to mind Read More

The Restless Tides of the Tagus

by Mário Santos The nymphs immersed in the deep haven of the river, inhabit the minds of the sailors who drift upon distressed waters, oblivious to the compulsive force that pushes them, inebriated by sleep. The river hides deep in its waters the last tears of the infants who traveled along it, in the gloom of sleep. Dark banks, drowned Read More