by Ashly Curtis My best friend and I ice skated on the kitchen floor,twirling off wooden chairs, gliding across tilein our pink ruffled socks. Salchows, Lutzes, evena rare triple axel or two. It was 1998. Olympic season.We held up handmade signs in the living room,blocky marker letters cheering on the figure skaters;Tara Lipinski etching beauty with her blades, carvingballerina. My Read More
Tag: children
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
child
by Iolana Paedelt cut me with your liesandlet me bleed out,drown in red blood-as i sinkdown,deeper into the dark abyss,still thinking that it’s love,when all you want issee me chokeon your darkness,so you can breathe. i asked you to stay.i said“you don’t have to leave.”you gave me all your words,your promises,and did it anyway.now i don’t know what is more Read More
People Parts
by Roppotucha Greenberg Pamela, my daughter, doesn’t come because she isn’t into graves lately (or Wordsworth or her maths homework), which is a shame. It’s been a year and I’ve grown a nice kitchenette beside the headstone. You know the way it is. At first, you seep. You squelch through the dark, straining at every molecule in your path. You’re Read More
What if Narcissus
by Hannah Storm What if Narcissus had been a father and not a lover What if Echo had been your child and not your vaunted lover,would you still have been doomed to sit by that pond,reflect your wrongs, your own face, or would you only see your Mini-me? Sweet child of yours, when God mademan in his own image, he Read More
Forever Feathers
By Inga Eissmann Buccella Outside – Sitting motionless on the branchShe looked to take the perfect chance To land way down belowOverlooking the brick patio The young hawk stared at the little boyBut the boy – through the glass – played with a toy Inside – father on the phonewept and sounded sad and alone When the man walked back Read More
Your Hometown Is an Apocalypse
by Justin Karcher Buzzfeed tells methat the world is endingjust as it’s always beenand they’re probably right the night sky where I grew upalways felt like a run-on sentencetoo many dashed dreamscompeting for spacethey all blended togetheryou could never tell the narrativejust that it was a desperate onethe stars were apostrophes that didn’t really belongbut we put them in there Read More
Between Wakeful Stillness and Bothered Slumber
by Sophie Kearing “Hello?” I croak. “Oh… did I wake you? It’s nine a.m.” “I know, Mom. I had a rough night. Cara had another… episode.” A judgmental pause, and then: “An episode, Margaret?” I shift under my bedding, which seems to be imbued with the very essence of sleeplessness. I spent last night watching over my daughter, who’d suffered Read More
Ludicrocity
by Guy Elston A child is prostrate, head on the grass,wailing in an all-consumed fury.His parents stand over him at the edgeof the public golf course wheredogs get walked, his dad holding a knotted plastic bag lump, his Mum a Gucci handbag.They make no attempt to halt his cacophony.Other walkers titter at the sightof the hysterics and the silent resignation.I Read More
IVF
by Anuja Ghimire Agnes left the prayer hall before the pianist returned to her seat and the happy people who stood up to applaud the middle-aged woman noticed. She needed to wash the baby’s face from her eyes. Sharon had carried him like a prize. He wiggled his feet near the sparkling water, looked at Agnes, and smiled. And Sharon Read More