Parking Lot

by Nate Logan It is Thanksgiving time again. A time for bread and mirth. A to-go container of rolls lay in the parking lot. A turned-over ramekin oozes butter like a wound, elicits crying and angry words. There are no employees outside telling us to “avert our eyes” or that “there’s nothing to see here.”

Photo Requests from Death Row

by Bill Livingston Frankie, Inmate 27388, San Quentin— wants a photo of his favorite band, Def Leppard onstage, as if it were taken last night. Isabella, Inmate 77429, Denver Women’s Correctional Facility— wants a photo of her family sitting around a big pan of their famous, freshly-made tamales that made them the heroes of their

Wade in the Water

by Richard Levine For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool,                    and troubled the water: John, 5:4 I can’t baptize or immunize youwith my nod or smile, passing in thispig-pink rural town, where your skinis as double-take out-of-placeas the blood-colored tearson a waxwing’s shoulders.And you don’t need protection to walkhere, nor anyone’s

When Words Fail

by Michelle A. Ludwig Because my bodyis a wallthat needs mending,I nod————————————–He will lay rock uponstone slick layerof whitein the space————————————–By the moonlighthis bodycocks high————————————–I watch. He fumbles.He does not know the word for             1.    the thaw has cut the stone             2.    moss in the damp             3.    tremor in the creek Michelle A. LudwigMichelle A. Ladwig is recently discovering her new wings.

i want to keep in touch

by John Compton we are rust or maybe rustic * our hands are searchlights our lost bodies’ buoys pulled & pulled * years find us searching backwards too late to mend too stubborn * we fight the current to have space still separate: our shadows between waves John Comptonjohn compton is a 33 years old gay

Called by Name

by R.T. Castleberry I used another name last night, took initials and a ringleader’s bandanna into calibrations of changing moonlight. I carry knives in every pocket, a coin lucky for the week. Loose on my hand, the signet ring is a stranger’s fit. I use Crown Royal to share my voice, a shoplifter’s Mont Blanc

Children of the Desert

by Emily Browne gather to see the bones that spell out met-a-mor-pho-sis vertebrae drifting in single file stars one hundred and two feet down strewn across the bottom of a dried-up well the blonde boy without history names dead stars in the order of their collapse what songs there are are of deserts sand wind

Do You Like Coffee?

by Carla Botha It always starts like this: with coffee somewhere —               coffee shops               coffee trucks               ice coffee               on breezy summer days               on lush lawns               hot July days it always starts like this it never ends like this. Carla BothaCarla Botha completed her MFA in creative writing at New York University. She currently lives and works