December 02, 2024
Robert Busby
Steer Away from That Darkess
Bradley steered his Chevy S-10 through the dark to the back of the Campbell property to drop off the deer. He saw Dewayne back there discussing something into a cordless phone, pacing across the open-aired shed where deer and other game were processed. In a past life the processing plant had been an abattoir where ancient Campbells of only a slightly better economic ...
November 22, 2024
Kelly Lynn Thomas
Let's Call It Deliverance
One
I know it’s cliché to start with the face in the mirror, but Cassiopeia, how can we begin any other way? Your high cheekbones, arched eyebrows shading ochre eyes, stately nose, and strong chin. Your hair, sometimes blonde, sometimes chestnut, coiled atop your head or framing your face in wavy ringlets. Your small, pert breasts, half covered by diaphanous ...
November 22, 2024
Kate Sweeney
Substratum
I keep my fingernails short so that when I touch myselfI will never tear through my interiority. Each time I leavethe house I remind my husband to touch the children
often to fold them gently into him. Put his hands overtheir hands, notice the security of diminishing pulseon their unbothered skin while they sleep. As a child
people only remembered to touch me when I was ...
November 15, 2024
Shara McCallum
Wilding
Machetazo!, Bony Ramirez & Blonde Dreams, Alison Saar
you can take the girl out of the wildernessyou can strand her bewilder her for a timeyou can even hang her upside downin your rickety attempt to shake loosethe source of her power but you won’t everdisentangle the wilding from herthe force of a thousand suns unfurlingand hurling her toward the groundyou won’t be ...
