My Life as a Cactus (essay) by Allie Marini Batts

I grow thornier with each touch. Keep your distance. I am all spines and spurs. Tipped in poison, like Egyptian arrowheads; I am a night bloomer, the moths and bats my friends. They feed me and take care not to light on my boughs. The moon, too, my friend, pale and blue at an arm’s …

13 Ways of Angels (poem) by Scott Owens

1 “It had wings,” she said, her eyes too wide not to be believed. “It had wings and had Daddy by the throat.” Her mouth wouldn’t stop. “I was afraid to touch him, the way I’m always afraid to touch him, the way he always touches me.” 2 The first thing he saw as he …

Eating Seedless Watermelon (poem) by Jill Klein

I’m leaning over the small side of the kitchen sink, the useless side with the grout gone and water seeping under the brown tiles, as I bite watermelon flesh. It drips under my chin so I lean in before the next, bigger bite and remember another sticky sink, also white and small, looking over a …

Flight (essay) by Joel Peckham

I have read how Tibetan monks, having carried the dead to the green valleys on a mountainside will strip a body of flesh, cut skin and muscle to fragments; then praying, take hammer to bone, crushing the last bits to powder. In the evening, these are left on the valley floor, offerings for gathering vultures.  …

The Death of an Astronaut (story) by Tuere T.S. Ganges

I witnessed the death of an astronaut in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The sky was as deep, dark, and blue as the ocean it reflected with scattered stars that looked like twinkling jacks careless cherubs left outside. I clutched a 24-pack of soft white toilet paper, looking for my car, when a little brown-skin boy …

In the Margins (poem) by Robin Turner

she wants him to be happy she wants him to be happy in his life she wants him to be happy in his life with her she wants him to be happy in his life without her unhappy in his life without her she just doesn’t want him to be unhappy with her in his …

After We Kissed for the First Time (poem) by Carolee Bennett Sherwood

the sky let loose the rain it had cradled in its arms all morning. A yellow dog pranced ahead of a man balancing his coffee cup and folded newspaper umbrella. Spontaneous, you’ll say later when I ask as though out of the blue, lips were close enough for other lips to touch. Soft pink blossoms …

The Ride of My Life (essay) by Christin Rice

Coffee is necessary. It’s necessary every day, but particularly today. It’s Sunday morning and I’m signed up for a writing workshop. My pen and paper are packed and ready to go, but my brain isn’t. Or maybe it’s my courage that hasn’t woken up yet. It’d be so much easier to stay home and struggle …

The Men Who Chase Storms (story) by Daniel Romo

They flew kites in the rain and dared lightning to strike. Small hands wielding string like daredevil virtuosos. Children who taunted the sky as if their parents would approve. They began as boys who required more than the rush of marbles colliding; never content with the surge of toilet-papering the town. Their parents were cloudless-blue-sky-sunny …

Engaged Couple Goes to the Movies (poem) by Bryan Borland

You suggested we share a large soda between us. I said I’d rather have my own. You offered me a handful of warm, fresh popcorn. I warned you the butter would stain my shirt. You cried when the girl ended up with the guy. I laughed and commented on improbability. You didn’t say a word …

Longing (poem) by Laura McCullough

It’s there inside each moment, molecule, in the lining of the clothes she folds, in the lint she pulls from the dryer’s lip; she feels it in the marks along her arms, the threads of Alice and Dorothy, amputated myths she once loved. Little Red in red script across her lower back; tramp stamp, her …

Fences (story) by Casey Murphy

“Have you ever run so fast it’s like you left your past behind?” The sun was sinking low behind the trees as Renee and Frank stared through the wire mesh fence out over the hills beyond. Renee’s fingers were laced through the holes in the fence, while Frank’s were stuffed in his pockets. He wanted …