In the garden closest to the house, I turn over the soil each spring, stir up more glass. There are stories, things that happened here, once upon some other time. And what is broken gets left behind—Wedgwood Blue, hobnail pitcher in jade. Leaded crystal, the smallest shards, champagne flutes raised to toast whatever didn’t last. […]
Category Archives: Issue 29
Stipulations by Robert Fromberg
She told me she would prefer that I walk between her and the curb. She told me she would prefer that I open the car door for her. She told me she would prefer that I open all doors for her. She told me to double-knot my boots. I did. She said, “Tell me what […]
Every Tear A Prayer by Angie Minkin
It never rains in LA, but today it pours. Your daughter knits warmth from fine Peruvian wool — night blues, slate gray, splash of orange. Her fingers can’t stop. She tenderly tucks you in. Your son trims your beard, gently combs your hair, smooths your eyebrows. You always look so sharp. We toast you with […]
Expecting by Luke Wortley
When I open my front door, I see that the porch has turned into a clutch of eggs. All of them dumb and round and nestled tightly, packed in like pebbles on a drive. I’m afraid to step out and see what the temperature actually feels like other than a swipe of my hands, fingers […]
floppy disk (noun) by Domenico Capilongo
floppy disk noun definition of floppy disk : a thin plastic disk coated with magnetic material on which data for a computer can be stored first computers big and stamped with the white letters p.e.t. under monochrome monitors. our teachers wide-eyed and proud as if we had figured out how to land on mars for […]
Maine Rocks by Karen Egee
I will be the rocks down at the shore, where you learn to swim, the glacier formed, sun-warmed, sea salted, seaweed laced rocks slanting into the bay, where your Mom and Dad will stand thigh deep in the water, arms extended, waiting for you to push off me with your feet and splash your way […]
Not a Prose Poem by Matthew Burnside
(Here’s a sentence without words, which you are not currently reading because it isn’t written on a screen or paper, and I am not the author, and you are not the listener because there is no sound in the slither of syllables, no jangle in a quake of consonants, and it is decidedly without punctuation, […]
The Tale of Trees by Owen Bullock
A tree came into our office, sat down and demanded that we give it something useful to do. We got a chainsaw and sawed it into logs. The next day another tree appeared, same request, same response. But it kept happening, and we had nowhere to put the firewood. We told the next tree it […]
The Dresser by Paige Blackburn
Okay, so, say you’re moving out, and you’ve got to leave the furniture behind. You know, because you’re not moving out, you’re being kicked out, and the furniture is not yours, so you’ve got to empty this dresser: a big, ancient thing with dozens of drawers (you wonder what something like it is even doing […]
When the archeologists by Carol Potter
………..dug up the Giant Ape from our back yard I was not surprised. Certainly, something huge had been lurking there. Something with outsized teeth and long hair. Not your ex-husband, not mine, and not a lost dog. Something that could toss you over its back and step on you and there you’d be. I knew […]
Tickled Pink by Carol Potter
I didn’t know it would be problem. Her raising rats in the back yard shed, the chirping sounds they made when they heard her coming through the grass. How they liked to be tickled. How she liked teaching them about the psychological benefits of laughter. From time to time, you could hear her laughing above […]
Incremental Doom by Ian Willey
I was sitting on a bench in the mall watching the fountain when a guy sat next to me and you could just tell he was going to start up a conversation, and he soon did. He held up a small purple ball and said, I have in my hand an Orb of Incremental Doom. […]
Divide and Conquer by Ian Willey
In the days when I had a lawn to mow I’d begin by cutting a path straight down the middle as General MacArthur did in the Inchon Maneuver. The Inchon Maneuver was a bold tactical move which turned the tide of the Korean War and led to the eventual division of the Koreas at the […]
About Ants by Jane Medved
The heat is rolling in, petals unhitched, bursts of curdled dust, and who knows what else, blown from the East, where bad things happen. Even the ants are acting confused, marking tiny circles next to the sink, trying to figure out a plan, with no ears, no lungs, little dinosaurs, looking for slaves, zombie ants, […]
When My Father Had Open Heart Surgery by Jane Medved
They gave him a color brochure. It featured a smiling grey haired couple playing golf, then another photo of them happily fly-fishing, all sorts of promises about what lay on the other side. I remember getting up at four a.m. to drive my mother to the hospital, a huge teaching complex at the South end […]
Winter in June by Lorette C. Luzajic
He is talking about glaciers and the widest skies in the world, about a place called Gondwana that hasn’t existed for two hundred million years. In June, the deep of winter, the moon is eternal and the sun does not rise. You imagine night horses with ice in their manes, galloping across snow-capped mountains. Where […]
The Skeleton Flower by Lorette C. Luzajic
He is telling us about the woman with a thousand umbrellas. How her halls are lined with a garden of brollies, chevron, checkers, damask and chintz. She disappears when the clouds come close, dissipating into vapor, into the thin air. She collects umbrellas to prevent her own vanishing. She is shy to shower in front […]
Pool by Ken Poyner
Your job is to tend the herd of giraffes that lounge in the median of Granby Street. You bring water and food several times a day, and that is the time most likely when a traffic tie up will occur. Motorists stop to see them knuckle down for water or stretch for the suspended food. […]
Study in Luck by Ken Poyner
An old drive-in, with the sound box unclipped from a pole and hung inside the car window by the same clip. Bodies sitting close as on the huge screen massive images move like elephants in love. Bodies sitting close is the important element: the car a mobile motel room with the excuse of a movie. […]
How to Make Boxed Shells: 8 Easy Steps by Brenda Nicholas
Fall in love too young. Feel heat rise to a boil, cleave to him until you turn tender. Say “YES!” half asleep when he slips a ring around your toothbrush. Finish your studies and move around the country to look for yourself as he looks for himself. Let your ideals of marriage drain out through […]
When Soap Operas Follow Fairy Tale Plots by Brenda Nicholas
Sheathed in Chanel, Maria sneaks into Frank’s hotel room where a happenstance glass of green fitness juice waits for Frank’s lips on the desk. If Frank had not slept with Suzanne, Maria would not have to do this, but she must. She takes her bottle of prescription pills out of her purse and after dropping […]
Vision by Howie Good
I’ll occasionally see the oddest things out of the corner of my eye – a beatnik cowboy, smiles like misplaced commas, even Pope Francis declaring from his window, “Don’t be afraid of tattoos.” The doctors say it’s the result of my body attacking itself. My knowing CPR helps, but not as much as you would […]
The Ashes by Jeff Friedman
We poured the ashes into the garden and said a prayer, a single bee flying from the roses. When we returned a day later, the flowers and plants had died, so we scooped the ashes into a container and walked down to the river where we kneeled and emptied them slowly, but instead of drifting […]
Snapping Turtle by Meg Pokrass and Jeff Friedman
On our video call, my son told me he found a snapping turtle baby in a nearby creek. “Why were you at a creek in this weather, and what were you doing that you spotted a baby snapping turtle?” Since he was little he was always climbing to the highest branch of a tree, or […]
Out of the Hat by Meg Pokrass and Jeff Friedman
I pulled my ex-husband out of one of my hats, and at first, he seemed happy to see me again. “I’ve really missed your hats, and all of your weird scarves,” he said to me, beaming. I contemplated stuffing him back into the hat, but then I remembered our days in Kansas City, how we […]
Issue 29 CONTENTS
read issue Meg Pokrass and Jeff Friedman Out of the Hat Snapping Turtle Jeff Friedman The Ashes Howie Good Vision Brenda Nicholas How to Make Boxed Shells: 8 Easy Steps When Soap Operas Follow Fairy Tale Plots Ken Poyner Pool Study in Luck Lorette C. Luzajic The Skeleton Flower Winter […]