Volume V Issue I
Fall 2021


Read Order

Cover Art: paprika

1. Excerpt
2. Soulsearch
3. Articulation
4. Cradling Sunlight
5. closing my eyes
6. The Oracle at Delphi
7. make space
8. Roller Skating, Sprained Elbow, Farmer’s Market!
9. flower 4
10. I LOOKED UP AND SAW THE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE
11. homesickness (confessions of a polluted pond)
12. mushroom schemes 1
13. winter in pennsylvania
14. She Used to Live Here
15. November is Rising
16. Listen
17. Eli
18. Scanned Documents
19. Our Timelines

20. Busy Busy 2020
21. The Body of an Unknown Christ ft. Blood
22. Ode-Meal
23. Wanting to be Clean
24. Untitled
25. a boose over heaven’s gate
26. Haunting
27. That Time I Talked to the Sky
28. mushroom schemes 3
29. Burnt
30. Poem 5
31. prom queen
32. Click to Start
33. Commute
34. I want to tell the story I should have told Hikmat
35. Imbricate
36. giving back and forth, but give to me (Maeva Ambrose)
37. giving back and forth, but give to me (Julia Taylor)


Poetry

Excerpt by sara lockett

You get
to your
feet like you
dig through
your pockets
for loose
change

Read
 

SoulSearch by danielle davis

Last Saturday my heart and mind went missing 
so 
I sent my soul hangliding 
over the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Read
 

articulation by Isabel Daniel

01. It’s putting on chapstick and buying a new pack of sponges. It’s lacing up boots and using a makeup remover wipe. It’s searching for synonyms and sitting in silence. It’s looking out the window wanting to scream until you understand.

Read
 

Closing my eyes by marissa pecorelli

i think i blinded myself
when i was little i would stare at the sun

Read
 

Roller Skating, Sprained Elbow, Farmer's Market! by erin healey

I sprained my elbow roller skating
I was 19 and it had been a month
Since she died,

Read
 

I LOOKED UP AND SAW THE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE by Ethan Manning

Heads up, heads up. 

A penny flipped for fortune, 
the weight of a wish betters copper, 
buckling to pressure from the eyes of a folly man. 

Read
 

homesickness (confessions of a polluted pond) by eva gelman

a growing city, like a child,
needs something to drink from
i like to think that the pond
loved the gaping mouth.

Read
 

Winter in Pennsylvania by Maddie katz

snow on the mountain
sends shoots to a distant hemisphere

Read
 

She used to live here by eva gelman and lu aubin

I tip-toed towards her
doe-like
carefully, I held her close,

Read
 

November is rising by olivia leduc

i was kissed by the silhouette curtains of september’s autumn
my cheeks stained by the orange of october

Read
 

The first human by michelle agaron

The day is wasting away when you call me,
tear-streaked and surrounded by sterility.
You say you went looking for a creation myth and
found the fading pulse of a broken wing instead.

Read
 

pseudonyms by Neve Beatriz Mendoza

now here is this beautiful boy & he says however i say his name will be correct. says, “the sound, it just doesn’t exist

in english.” his parents would never have named him that way if they thought they’d end up in queens, 

cultural melting pot, most diverse borough.

Read
 

Listen by michelle agaron

Lower the scalpel and forget this rotten project of yours.
Forget tracing the bridge and hoping to find straight edges
and contentment beneath your fingers, forget what is palatable

Read
 

Our Timelines by Cathleen Freedman

You and I,
in the whole history of Time, of Being, of Existence!,
are here.

Read
 

Body of an unknown christ feat. blood by Isabella Gonzalez (writer) and Leah Toledano (artist)

I used to be afraid of my navel,
this twisted screw sealing my organs shut
and reminding me that I could be unraveled if
someone dare try. No one provided instructions

Read
 

Ode-meal by maia Nuñez

Oatmeal, my beloved, 
Before you’re beatified, I have to ask: 
Are you a Gemini? You’re just so versatile! 

Read
 

Untitled by Alyssa Witovet

oil drips between knuckles, onto harsh
wax as intentions, carved from brittle tools

Read
 

Haunting by emma burden

It haunts me when you cry, when you tell me that you want to love me, but that he ruined you,
That he made you never want to love again,

Read
 

That time i talked to the sky by jessica yu

Oh wait, I think the sun is out now
I’m sure the clouds will pick me up soon

Read
 

Burnt by Brianna Vaca

Take a walk, take your lighter
Ashes on my palms and on the carpet

Read
 

Poem 5 by Omi Mehta

Our love was a thread I never quite let go of
I held on
Tightly
Dearly

Read
 

Click to start by Irene hao

Life is not a game to be played so carelessly.
This is my life, my level weighed carefully.
There is no respawn waiting at home.
If I'm going to live, I'll do it on my own.

Read
 

Commute 2 by Freddy butler and meg schanes

Smoke did not
blow from a manhole cover like
a woman dancing
in the wind, but
he wished it did.

Read
 

Commute 3 by Freddy Butler and Meg Schanes

There was never
any question of whether
they knew the route better than
the back of their hand;

Read
 

Commute 4 by Freddy Butler and Meg Schanes

“They are social animals,”
Aristotle said.

Read
 

Giving back and forth, but give to me by maeva ambrose

what do your eyes open and see, as I clench mine—
deeper, darker, into oblivion—
do they see in the deep?

Read

Prose

the oracle at delphi by julia taylor

I’m not an epileptic that I know of, or even an albino. I’m a fireman on the International of Maine. Besides that I don’t know. I was born of a couple of orphans in a mill town isn’t big nor small. My name is Teddy Whalen. When I first got shown in vaudeville they called it 

!! YANKEE WONDER !! 
Shockhead Ted the Boy Electric Wizard 

but you can call me Shockhead Ted. 

Read
 

eli by brian gibson

A radioed voice, female, can just be heard through the siren’s wailing. “This office has been placed under lockdown,” she says.

Read
 

I want to tell the story that I should have told Hikmat by Sofia Anjum

I want to tell the story that I should have told Hikmat. The story to make her fully understand me so that she would never have looked at me with those eyes.

Read

Art