Gina Valdés – Omens
Omens A lizard drags its tail through a crack in the world to lie on my altar under a skylight among saints and buddhas. For days the gecko sits still and silent: a green monk revealing the way to lizardy heaven, while on the oaks, crows cry out— for us to decode— the names of […]
Mary Makofske – This Country Could Break My Heart
This Country Could Break My Heart Slicked back hair, tooled boots, ten gallon hat that makes the head seem big. Broad hands, callused, quick to clench those women always running into fists. Blood’s easier than love, love’s short, somebody’s gonna cheat and break my heart, this country says. Oh lonesome road I can’t resist, outside […]
Penelope Gristelfink – The Limp
The Limp I’ve always wanted a limp, to be the one who could not get away, who has to be rescued, the last-minute virgin, that 24-hour drug store Christmas gift, cheap but sweet, politely brayed over. Because vulnerability always looks so much more charming from the outside, a snowglobe in which the lawn is perpetually […]
Mark J. Mitchell – Troy Games
Troy Games Troy Games are what the war games played by Roman boys were called. They were played with wooden swords as preparation for the life of a Roman citizen/soldier. 1. Before Troy Before Troy There were no Odysseys If you were Blown off course You were just lost. Sometimes for A very long time. […]
Shannon Connor Winward – Boys and Trains
Boys and Trains That week, driving past the playground with its view of the creek, I thought of bodies but the water there is always full of things it shouldn’t be the trees are tricksters, light and shadow they’ve taken the form of dead boys before. My son was in the backseat. I was eager […]
