Why Are You So Skinny?

by Lamar Neal I once thought my body was hideous, Filled with reminders why no one called me their own. At such a tender age, I lived envious Broken that puberty was my curse and others’ milestone. I couldn’t understand why God Didn’t give me a reason to hold my head high. The only time people were awed By my Read More

Refuge

by Jack Somers Dennis left on a Saturday morning. He called Mom a miserable bitch, emptied his drawer in the bedroom, and thundered out the front door. I was relieved. Of all the boyfriends she had brought home over the years, I liked Dennis the least. He took money out of my piggy bank to buy booze and smacked me 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

i spy

by Marissa Glover fraidy cat, fraidy cat who’s been running home to mommy                who’s been running                               fraidy, fraidy cat simon says you’ve been crying, simon says                are those tears, cry baby baby, baby          nanny nanny boo boo                               who’s been running                who ring around the rosy                pockets full of poesy stand still while we run Read More

Ele

by Agampreet Kalra An elephant clogged inside my skull Makes sound each time I breathe There I put my foot forth And here a trumpet rings out I sleep, I sleep at night. But an ant walks in through the cave – Stay wake-broiling, Bubbling, Cold stone blood, Itching the Ele. When I smile in the sunshine The purple bruised Read More

I’m Not Going Crazy

by Normand Lepine Editor’s Note: Maintaining good mental health takes vigilance, self-awareness, and a good dose of laughter. Because if you never laugh, you might… well, go crazy. With that in mind, please enjoy these Top 10 Reasons I Know I’m Not Going Crazy. Top 10 Reasons I Know I’m Not Going Crazy 10. I never let my mind wander. 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

Congress of the Insomniacs

by Jennifer Wilson promethazine is bitter and makes dust on all things clouds on the hands and white around the fingers lines left white on the table tops and tastes of bitterness on the lips as they plume with wisps and spores like feathers plucked for a feast of public discourse and bald all the people gather in their nakedness Read More

Anxiety

by David Hanlon What is there to say about rickety bones that isn’t rickety? Not much when my nervous system is shot and my tongue is muted by panic so thunderous I fight against the gulping of half-formed vowels, I breathe in five times faster, and if each breath taken in is a new intake of life, I’m clamouring to Read More

Lexapro Goddess

by Mateo Lara to cease to exist and to die are two different things entirely – Erika L. Sanchez Truth:                         Remind me of light                        white pill destroys darkest woe                        now the heavy fades Every bright thing the pills gave were all greedy bastards. Sometimes when I wake up there’s a fog floating above, right before my mind Read More