Flutter: southern gothic fever dream (Book Review)

Warm up your February with Flutter: southern gothic fever dream by Kristin Garth, illustrated by Mathew Yates, now available from TwistiT Press. In Flutter, Garth’s annotated sonnets tell the story of Sylvia Dandridge, bed-ridden with scarlet fever in 1883 Pensacola. As the fever progresses, Sylvia becomes drawn into the otherworldly side of her parents’ estate, where dreams and reality fuse. Read More

Home Landing

by Yuan Changming Having nothing better to do, I kill             Time by looking at a traditional Chinese painting on my iPad             Much enlarged, it appears like A plain sheet of rice paper             Smeared with ink. I view it             In the presence of bonsai; I Drop several thick strokes to the floor Of history, leaving a few Read More

An Elephantine Christmas

by Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad For Thomas Thorpe In your collection of Christmas cardsthe Peruvian nativity scene stands outnewborn hope cocooned in a cradlethe snow flecked peaks of the Andesrejoicing in the saviour’s birth. you show me the layered papyrusof an Egyptian Christmas cardwhere denizens gaze upon a stara prayer of hope and peaceupon their parted lips. then you look up Read More

Paragraphiti On The Cusp Of Living With Olives

by Gerard Sarnat You walk into the room With your pencil in your hand You see somebody naked And you say, “Who is that man?” You try so hard But you don’t understand Just what you’ll say When you get home.– Bob Dylan, Ballad Of A Thin Man i. I don’t remember when The Pilgrim’spork pie hat & suit bobbed Read More

Baby Elephant

by Farhana Khalique Baby Elephant is trying to sit in my lap again. I groan and uncross my legs and she half rests, watching me. I run my hands over her parchment skin, a palimpsest of grey. Her watermelon head is as hot as desire. I tickle her parachute ears. We sit like this on the shadowed plains of my Read More

Sometimes You Get the Bull, Sometimes

by Jack B. Bedell There’s got to be a moment             when the inmate clown wants the bull to stomp him out,             that long second when the dust kicked up from the bull’s charge             rises toward heaven and people in the stands             hold all the air in their lungs, that hard pause when it’s not a life Read More

The Artist Studies the Effect of Sadness on Her Own Face

by Amanda McLeod Sadness changes the shape of my face Lines of happiness get redrawn in a different direction with a heavy pencil that only pulls down Eyes have their sparkle  erased Hooded shields appear puffy, and the corners are tugged at by a memory that once, things were better Fine traces  of watercolour tears stain my skin a different Read More

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Break out your green undies, set the cabbage to boil, and turn up The Chieftains on your stereo! On St. Patrick’s Day, every pachyderm can appropriate and enjoy a little bit of Irish culture. If you live in Boston or Chicago, you may even find participation unavoidable. For everyone else, we recommend you find a fiddle, step into the Riverdance, Read More

New Year’s Submission Wishes

A tumbling wave of fireworks, popping champagne corks, and glitter approaches. Soon, 2019 will sweep in, propelling us toward future shores. So while you prepare to body surf that beast, we hope you’ll resolve to submit some work to Elephants Never. To help, we present our list of New Year’s submission wishes. Surf’s up! New Year’s Submission Wishes Hopeful flash Read More

Desist

by Jack Caseros She tells me she is here to remove obstacles. The nails in the wall, the gaped-mouth hooks, the empty picture frames. The house has had many lives before me. Now they are in the way of her baby elephant painting. The painting is life-sized. When Shreya drags it inside the screen door flaps against the canvas like Read More