The way to her mother’s apartment is long. She passes a gothic building choked by creepers and the roots of proud mangroves, the glorious archways chipped, peeling into a heavy sky. Monsoon season. In an hour or two, the rain will pummel down, as if the sky could hold it no longer. Neha feels a … More Juhu by Katherine Kesner
His body was strung upside down so that his head was five feet from the floor. The harness distributed his weight but gave the illusion that he was bound at the ankles. A vat above him dripped the caramel made from his own surgically removed fat down the nylon suspension and over his body. Below … More Something to Sink Your Teeth Into by Katie Kalahan
Robert DiMatteo is a visual artist with a keen interest in science and the environment. His current project, The Periodic Table, focuses on the visualisation of chemistry through art. Each element he has tackled so far has three representations using different media; acryllic, graphite, and goache. He envisions the series as a means to draw … More Robert DiMatteo Discusses Art and Science
The sun dove as I reached the main square—sunstroked, boozy tourists mingling with buskers and vendors hocking beads and tees, washing like tide from buzzing, shoe-closet bars and markets clutching sweating beers, yapping like parakeets. I ambled, trying to decide between empanadas or burgers, when I crossed a dark avenue leaking strings and timbales and … More Xibalba by Stephen Ground
Old Shoulders Once lying in bed beside a lover, I wished for removable arms, so I could press myself against him and give those overworked oar locks a rest. The next day, I’d slip them back in place to row us down the river into town, past cliffs and overhanging willows. Now my shoulders ache … More 3 poems by Jaqueline Newlove
Marriage I may not have loved you, but I set your shoes out at your place on the mat every day before you hopped the train. Sat them by the door, far enough so the cross-breeze from under wouldn’t chill the toes and I untied the laces, left them limply at the sides. Though I … More 2 poems by Sarah Valeika
She envied the pink plastic furnishings of other girls. Hers were makeshift, cast-off cardboard from the kitchen, the laundry room. Hairstyle experiments matted her cottony hair, and there was a pinhole in her forehead from a brief curiosity concerning acupuncture. Aware of the benzene in her DNA, she still managed a shy smile. A gleam … More Love, Or Something Like It by Carolyn Adams
Fires start in rainstorms, grandma told me once. Behold this tangle of thorns. The rose garden blooms by blood in the snow. Daffodils, the willing weeds. Roots on the waterworn cliffs, platonic pornography. I scoop mouthfuls of her words and fondly break into wilder sprints to boys my age with eager ears, embittered tongues, halos … More Grandma Told Me by Tom Garback
Four years have passed since the woman I knew as Mother enclosed me in my tower. Mother claimed the confinement was to protect me from the world’s cruelty. “Zel, your oddness and ugliness grow each day, and men destroy the things they find hideous.” Mother left me only one toy, a gilt-framed mirror, which helps … More Stealing from Windowsills by Judy Darley
Cat’s Delight If the moon was spun of yarn and the stars were strands of thread lying between awake and asleep I would tie them to my bed Bubblegum Breath Each bubblegum bubble I blew gained a core floated off the Earth and became a planet once more Ribbons You tied ribbons around … More 3 poems by Jade Riordan
