spring 2018
Table of Contents
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Grim Reaper in Therapy
Brandon Marlon
Dear Chepe
Wilbur
Melissa Weiss
Synonyms For Shelter
Jill Talbot
Like André Derain
David R. Dixon
Trump As a Fire Without Light #665
Darren C. Demaree
He Ring Liar's Dice Confluence Derek Thomas Dew
Naming
Cow Field
Danielle Hanson
an understanding
Natasha Zarin
Ice Skating in Holland Carol Hamilton
Push
Armamentarium
Adrienne Gruber
First Ultrasound
Second Ultrasound
Stephanie Yorke
Wet Parable
Duck
Carver
Nathan Curnow
The Path Discoverer
Taylor Bond
Cracked Fabergé Egg Of Yes
Lauren Turner
drowning man is not a superhero
Aidan Chafe
Boxing Day
Carlie Blume
Sea Room / The Adrift
Exhibit / Queer
Lynx
Joseph Spece
Never the Desired Absence
Nick Alti
Boxing Day
i told my mother
on boxing day
what you did.
i wish you could have seen it
words sluicing her eyes shut
until the sting wore off enough
for her to open them
to deep sea sting
but really
how does a twelve-year-old find the words?
to say
she was
oyster shucked
feather plucked
pulled hard like fruit from a verdant branch
water spilled on the crotch of your pants
how you
grandfather
now have me on boxing day wondering
if even Father Christmas was cursed with a little child lust too
how does a twelve–year-old tell her mother?
that you courted my monkey bar craving
with a Wendy’s frosty
visits to the library
watched me dance around in overalls?
how I waited for the poison to enter her blood
veins charged clean with a cold smack of truth
a spat out tooth
bitter juice.
and I contemplate
how abrupt it is
when the radio stops playing carols
on boxing day.