by Lauren Bender Don’t tell methere are peoplein this room; I can see thembut that does notmean they exist. My sweater sleeveis mouth-soakedwith the fear of swallowing.I am on a missionto be small with furtive eyeslike any animalwith suspicions, pricking its earsto the distant sobsin the hills, angry in anticipation ofbeing hunted. Thenangry I never … Continue reading Blending Techniques 1 & 2
by Lauren Bender I bled outduring the night. A small wound.I don’t know why. I woke to find mybody drained, a bit dizzy.Must have been midnight when I hit empty,a man rattling my doorknob backand forth slow, quiet, angryat its lock. Must have been thatwicked moment when the oven clicked on,thinking about itself, and the … Continue reading Tipping Point
by William Doreski This is our third honeymoon and the first on which you’ve spoken to me, to anyone. The Volga flows under our little room. The innkeeper wields no recognizable language. Your native Russian means nothing to him. When English falls from my mouth it writhes on the carpet, where he extinguishes it with … Continue reading Honeymoon on the Volga
by William Doreski The cold pouring down from the Arctic has toughened into an entity. Some kind of hideous animal, not to be petted, trusted, or even fed. Let it forage as it will. Let it growl and claw the pine-trunks. Don’t let it into the house unless you think it’s about to produce a … Continue reading Polar Vortex
by Alexandria Liston A Tabby swaddled in cellophane. Smoldered stiff residue. Thinking if I didn’t eat, I could spend hundreds of dollars on clothes instead. Thinking less body would be good; Thinking less of me and more of you. The train is cold and still. Winding in loops and loops with light above. It is … Continue reading Sky is Dark
by John Grey out of happiness, wretchedness, truth and falsity, comes this Nebraska highway, where wheat has devoured grasslands and fence posts lead the way — barely a kink in the surface, a dip in the horizon, just a farmhouse, a silo, to measure the boredom and a car keeping up with the stars — … Continue reading On a Nebraska Interstate at Night
by Kevin Risner should I sit down with a block of tarot cards you flip each one right side up you go further down the line to the image you’re thirsting for raise it for all to see the future you have dreamt about I dreamt about so many harrowing things this past month I … Continue reading Should I Sit Down
by Kevin Risner I’m alone I’m lying on my back TV muted don’t hear much except for a thrum inside of me a bump against my sternum my heart is there I’m holding my breath stop the lungs from going haywire but the heart keeps at it I see its twitch beneath the skin like … Continue reading Proprioception
by Christopher Bell “I still don’t know what to do with that spare room.” Elaine let her fingers edge in and out of the window. “I mean, it can’t just be for all that shit we don’t wanna deal with.” “I thought that’s why we got the two bedroom.” Tim drove faster than usual in … Continue reading Pulled Over
by Lena Ziegler & Find you murky inside my skin rattling loose splinters from my tongue a rot within this ghost breathing through the letters of your face a name that rhymes sweet forgiveness & I sense a tingle in your brain a tickle asking for the cure you’ve been the wild burn of forest … Continue reading Moonlight & Famine
Dream Noir 