Spawn

Spawn by Heather Durham Few phenomena are as mesmerizing as a spawning salmon holding steady in a stream. Fire maybe—the liquid undulations of flames in air. But unlike combustion, that chemical conversation between heat and fuel, salmon’s communion with water is...

Blood, I Wonder (a sonnet) + Love Notes to his Dead Wife

Blood, I Wonder (a sonnet) + Love Notes to his Dead Wife by Kari Despain Blood, I Wonder (a sonnet) Plane lands. Vegas, and like always, a setof girls dance on the escalator. Boysclaim what they’ll drink, hail an Uber through sweatstench, cologne, cigarettes, fried...

Burdens of Mortality

Burdens of Mortality by Jeneva Stone             —Lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia (Aeneid) Down the gray channel of highway, flecked by endless whitedashes, above me drowned in daylight may be stars. I’vebeen crying for no reason again, not even for the diminutionof...

Bad Vegan

Bad Vegan by Dale Trumbore I feed my cats chicken by the canful.We kill the ants by poisoning the queen,drive past each violently droughted yardwhile ours gleams like sea glass. We rescued the first hornworm,then—more, more—filled a bucketwith soapy water. Drowned...

Day Three (the first time)

Day Three (the first time) by Ann Pedone Since the 18th Century, change has been slowThen sometimes: a man will have the urge toreplace all of the windows in his house Once a week we come here and try to figureout why people still find antiquity so erotic Last night...