March 2025

Issue 93

March 2025

Issue 93

Photo by Sebastian Leonhardt on Unsplash

Poetry


Featured image for ““UAV,” “a boat tows a floating billboard,” and “Week 20””

Paul Zammit

“UAV,” “a boat tows a floating billboard,” and “Week 20”

O phalanx of clouds,
formed against your own shadow,
diorama of the maxim that armies,
like lovers, come in pairs—
promulgate now in bulleted wisps,
conformist’s dark room dripping in chemical
& negative & clothes-pinned evidence
Poetry
Featured image for ““Snake in Our Midst,” ” House of Mirrors,” and “Entwined””

Louise Moises

“Snake in Our Midst,” ” House of Mirrors,” and “Entwined”

on the sunbaked
patio, a little girl,
discovers a snake
sunning itself
on a boulder
she runs into
the house
jubilantly reports
the presence…
Poetry
Featured image for ““Origins All the Time,” “Two Faces,” and “Arguing Again””

Matthew Freeman

“Origins All the Time,” “Two Faces,” and “Arguing Again”

I’m so sorry you don’t have the vision
I have. Like when Lesbia
showed me the new Cure cassette in ‘92
I was able to pick out
what would be the most popular songs
in two seconds.
Poetry
Featured image for ““Shades of Red,” ” Indigo, Turmeric,” and “Out of Nowhere””

Holly Willis

“Shades of Red,” ” Indigo, Turmeric,” and “Out of Nowhere”

color
came to me suddenly
not blood, but red, reddish
and burning. Only

at first abrupt,
like a punch line, a
jawbone or
hallway carved
Poetry
Featured image for ““The Sky a Flawless Blue,” “When your Muse has Left the Building,” and “My Own Little Beast””

Joanne Jagoda

“The Sky a Flawless Blue,” “When your Muse has Left the Building,” and “My Own Little Beast”

The sky, a flawless blue,
the kind of California day,
that gets under your skin.
Scaffolds holding up the heavens
stretching against celestial infinity.
Is there a placeholder for me
in that expanse?
Poetry
Featured image for ““I am the Tortoise,” “Greenland Isn’t Green,” and “Eating at Al Capone’s Soup Kitchen””

Robert Eugene Rubino

“I am the Tortoise,” “Greenland Isn’t Green,” and “Eating at Al Capone’s Soup Kitchen”

Flamingoes all pink and proud
at the Junior Museum & Zoo.
Kids & grandparents all aflutter
flocking to public feeding time
in a fluff-and-strut club of cute.
Poetry
Featured image for ““UAV,” “a boat tows a floating billboard,” and “Week 20””

Paul Zammit

“UAV,” “a boat tows a floating billboard,” and “Week 20”

O phalanx of clouds,
formed against your own shadow,
diorama of the maxim that armies,
like lovers, come in pairs—
promulgate now in bulleted wisps,
conformist’s dark room dripping in chemical
& negative & clothes-pinned evidence
Poetry
Featured image for ““Snake in Our Midst,” ” House of Mirrors,” and “Entwined””

Louise Moises

“Snake in Our Midst,” ” House of Mirrors,” and “Entwined”

on the sunbaked
patio, a little girl,
discovers a snake
sunning itself
on a boulder
she runs into
the house
jubilantly reports
the presence…
Poetry
Featured image for ““Origins All the Time,” “Two Faces,” and “Arguing Again””

Matthew Freeman

“Origins All the Time,” “Two Faces,” and “Arguing Again”

I’m so sorry you don’t have the vision
I have. Like when Lesbia
showed me the new Cure cassette in ‘92
I was able to pick out
what would be the most popular songs
in two seconds.
Poetry
Featured image for ““Shades of Red,” ” Indigo, Turmeric,” and “Out of Nowhere””

Holly Willis

“Shades of Red,” ” Indigo, Turmeric,” and “Out of Nowhere”

color
came to me suddenly
not blood, but red, reddish
and burning. Only

at first abrupt,
like a punch line, a
jawbone or
hallway carved
Poetry
Featured image for ““The Sky a Flawless Blue,” “When your Muse has Left the Building,” and “My Own Little Beast””

Joanne Jagoda

“The Sky a Flawless Blue,” “When your Muse has Left the Building,” and “My Own Little Beast”

The sky, a flawless blue,
the kind of California day,
that gets under your skin.
Scaffolds holding up the heavens
stretching against celestial infinity.
Is there a placeholder for me
in that expanse?
Poetry
Featured image for ““I am the Tortoise,” “Greenland Isn’t Green,” and “Eating at Al Capone’s Soup Kitchen””

Robert Eugene Rubino

“I am the Tortoise,” “Greenland Isn’t Green,” and “Eating at Al Capone’s Soup Kitchen”

Flamingoes all pink and proud
at the Junior Museum & Zoo.
Kids & grandparents all aflutter
flocking to public feeding time
in a fluff-and-strut club of cute.
Poetry

Poetry


Featured image for ““UAV,” “a boat tows a floating billboard,” and “Week 20””

Paul Zammit

“UAV,” “a boat tows a floating billboard,” and “Week 20”

O phalanx of clouds,
formed against your own shadow,
diorama of the maxim that armies,
like lovers, come in pairs—
promulgate now in bulleted wisps,
conformist’s dark room dripping in chemical
& negative & clothes-pinned evidence
Poetry
Featured image for ““Snake in Our Midst,” ” House of Mirrors,” and “Entwined””

Louise Moises

“Snake in Our Midst,” ” House of Mirrors,” and “Entwined”

on the sunbaked
patio, a little girl,
discovers a snake
sunning itself
on a boulder
she runs into
the house
jubilantly reports
the presence…
Poetry
Featured image for ““Origins All the Time,” “Two Faces,” and “Arguing Again””

Matthew Freeman

“Origins All the Time,” “Two Faces,” and “Arguing Again”

I’m so sorry you don’t have the vision
I have. Like when Lesbia
showed me the new Cure cassette in ‘92
I was able to pick out
what would be the most popular songs
in two seconds.
Poetry
Featured image for ““Shades of Red,” ” Indigo, Turmeric,” and “Out of Nowhere””

Holly Willis

“Shades of Red,” ” Indigo, Turmeric,” and “Out of Nowhere”

color
came to me suddenly
not blood, but red, reddish
and burning. Only

at first abrupt,
like a punch line, a
jawbone or
hallway carved
Poetry
Featured image for ““The Sky a Flawless Blue,” “When your Muse has Left the Building,” and “My Own Little Beast””

Joanne Jagoda

“The Sky a Flawless Blue,” “When your Muse has Left the Building,” and “My Own Little Beast”

The sky, a flawless blue,
the kind of California day,
that gets under your skin.
Scaffolds holding up the heavens
stretching against celestial infinity.
Is there a placeholder for me
in that expanse?
Poetry
Featured image for ““I am the Tortoise,” “Greenland Isn’t Green,” and “Eating at Al Capone’s Soup Kitchen””

Robert Eugene Rubino

“I am the Tortoise,” “Greenland Isn’t Green,” and “Eating at Al Capone’s Soup Kitchen”

Flamingoes all pink and proud
at the Junior Museum & Zoo.
Kids & grandparents all aflutter
flocking to public feeding time
in a fluff-and-strut club of cute.
Poetry

Short Story

New Fiction

Featured image for “Death Beyond Innocence”

Baxter Mitchell-Knight

Death Beyond Innocence

Exactly three weeks, six days, seven hours, and forty-two minutes before his sixth birthday, Nathan Front announced to his mother that he was going to die. They had ground to a halt on the road that overlooked the coastline.
Short Story
Featured image for “Side Effects”

Linda Heller

Side Effects

On April 26th, 1949, Selma Stern married the wrong man, a circumstance she compulsively complained about, as though Morris Wort, an otherwise infuriately passive individual had grabbed her by the arm, dragged to City Hall, and forced a judge to unite them before her fiancé, a demigod stuck in traffic, could intervene.
Short Story
Featured image for “The Story of a Girl Who Lives in the City That Sparkles”

Mark Knego

The Story of a Girl Who Lives in the City That Sparkles

Waves of people swarm the sidewalks like the waves in the nearby ocean, and it is always hot. Shoppers, families, delivery boys, phone addicts, lost souls, tourists, girls of the night clearly in their early mornings and more. They all look the same…
Short Story
Featured image for “Therefore I Am”

Ryan Nachnani

Therefore I Am

I compel myself to think, even if every stream of thought seems to pool only into misery.
I’ve had too much time on my hands since we arrived in Rexdale — settled down in a barren basement where I thought our dreams would take form.
Short Story
Featured image for “Who Could Ask For Anything More?”

Peggi McCarthy

Who Could Ask For Anything More?

Howard’s wife was talking about the yard again, before his breakfast, that back forty he’d bought when the Fishers moved away. She didn’t want him to clear it, said she’d spotted some special flower. Weed, more likely. Fond of wasteland, Fay was – stumps and berries.
Short Story
Featured image for “How to Ride an Ostrich”

Michelle Lowes

How to Ride an Ostrich

Ada walked through their neat front garden, which looked as unremarkable as yesterday. The front door key still fit in the lock, and she let the keychain dangle a moment. She unbuttoned her brown coat then bent to dust off her trousers and retie a lace in her leather shoes. Her wristwatch said it had only been twenty-four hours.
Short Story
Featured image for “Death Beyond Innocence”

Baxter Mitchell-Knight

Death Beyond Innocence

Exactly three weeks, six days, seven hours, and forty-two minutes before his sixth birthday, Nathan Front announced to his mother that he was going to die. They had ground to a halt on the road that overlooked the coastline.
Short Story
Featured image for “Side Effects”

Linda Heller

Side Effects

On April 26th, 1949, Selma Stern married the wrong man, a circumstance she compulsively complained about, as though Morris Wort, an otherwise infuriately passive individual had grabbed her by the arm, dragged to City Hall, and forced a judge to unite them before her fiancé, a demigod stuck in traffic, could intervene.
Short Story
Featured image for “The Story of a Girl Who Lives in the City That Sparkles”

Mark Knego

The Story of a Girl Who Lives in the City That Sparkles

Waves of people swarm the sidewalks like the waves in the nearby ocean, and it is always hot. Shoppers, families, delivery boys, phone addicts, lost souls, tourists, girls of the night clearly in their early mornings and more. They all look the same…
Short Story
Featured image for “Therefore I Am”

Ryan Nachnani

Therefore I Am

I compel myself to think, even if every stream of thought seems to pool only into misery.
I’ve had too much time on my hands since we arrived in Rexdale — settled down in a barren basement where I thought our dreams would take form.
Short Story
Featured image for “Who Could Ask For Anything More?”

Peggi McCarthy

Who Could Ask For Anything More?

Howard’s wife was talking about the yard again, before his breakfast, that back forty he’d bought when the Fishers moved away. She didn’t want him to clear it, said she’d spotted some special flower. Weed, more likely. Fond of wasteland, Fay was – stumps and berries.
Short Story
Featured image for “How to Ride an Ostrich”

Michelle Lowes

How to Ride an Ostrich

Ada walked through their neat front garden, which looked as unremarkable as yesterday. The front door key still fit in the lock, and she let the keychain dangle a moment. She unbuttoned her brown coat then bent to dust off her trousers and retie a lace in her leather shoes. Her wristwatch said it had only been twenty-four hours.
Short Story
Featured image for “Death Beyond Innocence”

Baxter Mitchell-Knight

Death Beyond Innocence

Exactly three weeks, six days, seven hours, and forty-two minutes before his sixth birthday, Nathan Front announced to his mother that he was going to die. They had ground to a halt on the road that overlooked the coastline.
Short Story
Featured image for “Side Effects”

Linda Heller

Side Effects

On April 26th, 1949, Selma Stern married the wrong man, a circumstance she compulsively complained about, as though Morris Wort, an otherwise infuriately passive individual had grabbed her by the arm, dragged to City Hall, and forced a judge to unite them before her fiancé, a demigod stuck in traffic, could intervene.
Short Story
Featured image for “The Story of a Girl Who Lives in the City That Sparkles”

Mark Knego

The Story of a Girl Who Lives in the City That Sparkles

Waves of people swarm the sidewalks like the waves in the nearby ocean, and it is always hot. Shoppers, families, delivery boys, phone addicts, lost souls, tourists, girls of the night clearly in their early mornings and more. They all look the same…
Short Story
Featured image for “Therefore I Am”

Ryan Nachnani

Therefore I Am

I compel myself to think, even if every stream of thought seems to pool only into misery.
I’ve had too much time on my hands since we arrived in Rexdale — settled down in a barren basement where I thought our dreams would take form.
Short Story
Featured image for “Who Could Ask For Anything More?”

Peggi McCarthy

Who Could Ask For Anything More?

Howard’s wife was talking about the yard again, before his breakfast, that back forty he’d bought when the Fishers moved away. She didn’t want him to clear it, said she’d spotted some special flower. Weed, more likely. Fond of wasteland, Fay was – stumps and berries.
Short Story
Featured image for “How to Ride an Ostrich”

Michelle Lowes

How to Ride an Ostrich

Ada walked through their neat front garden, which looked as unremarkable as yesterday. The front door key still fit in the lock, and she let the keychain dangle a moment. She unbuttoned her brown coat then bent to dust off her trousers and retie a lace in her leather shoes. Her wristwatch said it had only been twenty-four hours.
Short Story

Short Story


Featured image for “Death Beyond Innocence”

Baxter Mitchell-Knight

Death Beyond Innocence

Exactly three weeks, six days, seven hours, and forty-two minutes before his sixth birthday, Nathan Front announced to his mother that he was going to die. They had ground to a halt on the road that overlooked the coastline.
Featured image for “Side Effects”

Linda Heller

Side Effects

On April 26th, 1949, Selma Stern married the wrong man, a circumstance she compulsively complained about, as though Morris Wort, an otherwise infuriately passive individual had grabbed her by the arm, dragged to City Hall, and forced a judge to unite them before her fiancé, a demigod stuck in traffic, could intervene.
Featured image for “The Story of a Girl Who Lives in the City That Sparkles”

Mark Knego

The Story of a Girl Who Lives in the City That Sparkles

Waves of people swarm the sidewalks like the waves in the nearby ocean, and it is always hot. Shoppers, families, delivery boys, phone addicts, lost souls, tourists, girls of the night clearly in their early mornings and more. They all look the same…
Featured image for “Therefore I Am”

Ryan Nachnani

Therefore I Am

I compel myself to think, even if every stream of thought seems to pool only into misery.
I’ve had too much time on my hands since we arrived in Rexdale — settled down in a barren basement where I thought our dreams would take form.
Featured image for “Who Could Ask For Anything More?”

Peggi McCarthy

Who Could Ask For Anything More?

Howard’s wife was talking about the yard again, before his breakfast, that back forty he’d bought when the Fishers moved away. She didn’t want him to clear it, said she’d spotted some special flower. Weed, more likely. Fond of wasteland, Fay was – stumps and berries.
Featured image for “How to Ride an Ostrich”

Michelle Lowes

How to Ride an Ostrich

Ada walked through their neat front garden, which looked as unremarkable as yesterday. The front door key still fit in the lock, and she let the keychain dangle a moment. She unbuttoned her brown coat then bent to dust off her trousers and retie a lace in her leather shoes. Her wristwatch said it had only been twenty-four hours.

Long Short Story

Novel Chapter

Novel Chapters

Featured image for “Golden Aphrodite”

Tamara Tovey

Golden Aphrodite

“Lion,” Artemis chokes out. She needs an excuse. “I want to check on Quill. My porcupine friend. He’s worried about me. Give me a moment to find him.”
Up she leaps, striding through the forest’s thickness, her pace accelerating as fast as her pounding heart, refusing memory with every panting breath.
Novel Chapter
Featured image for “Aftermath”

Sandra Kolankiewicz

Aftermath

People have commented how stoic I was about my brother’s death, how graceful all the sons were about losing the third in line, but most of them don’t realize we were born with genes for fatalism that had been switched on for generations. On both sides of my family before the emigration here, our ancestors knew little but stress, war, and hard work.
Novel Chapter
Featured image for “The Gilded Cage”

David Kennedy

The Gilded Cage

The sun blazed down upon Cave Hill Cemetery, bathing the graves of the fallen with tribute for their ultimate sacrifice. John Marshall Harlan stood among an impatient crowd. He knew some of the men interred here, who had departed their sweet Kentucky homes, their beloved creeks and valleys, for the sake of the indivisible Union, and from time to time he would visit their graves.
Novel Chapter
Featured image for “Final Acts,  A Novel”

Joseph Allen Boone

Final Acts, A Novel

David Abbott was the last person the citizenry of Centerville expected to commit suicide, much less in broad daylight and by such unsightly means, his broken and bloody corpse splayed on impact from its five-story fall onto the sidewalk in front of the Playhouse Cinema.
Novel Chapter
Featured image for “You’re Not My Next Thought”

Kelly Nusz

You’re Not My Next Thought

Back in the spring, when the thawed warmth of early morning felt new through the concrete lattice of the parking garage, Eddie and Margaret would not have been so free in their intolerance of Marshall, or so close that handholding felt natural. In the spring they were just becoming accustomed to the others’ short stops, hard turns, and personal music preferences.
Novel Chapter

novel Chapter


Featured image for “Golden Aphrodite”

Tamara Tovey

Golden Aphrodite

“Lion,” Artemis chokes out. She needs an excuse. “I want to check on Quill. My porcupine friend. He’s worried about me. Give me a moment to find him.”
Up she leaps, striding through the forest’s thickness, her pace accelerating as fast as her pounding heart, refusing memory with every panting breath.
Novel Chapter
Featured image for “Aftermath”

Sandra Kolankiewicz

Aftermath

People have commented how stoic I was about my brother’s death, how graceful all the sons were about losing the third in line, but most of them don’t realize we were born with genes for fatalism that had been switched on for generations. On both sides of my family before the emigration here, our ancestors knew little but stress, war, and hard work.
Novel Chapter
Featured image for “The Gilded Cage”

David Kennedy

The Gilded Cage

The sun blazed down upon Cave Hill Cemetery, bathing the graves of the fallen with tribute for their ultimate sacrifice. John Marshall Harlan stood among an impatient crowd. He knew some of the men interred here, who had departed their sweet Kentucky homes, their beloved creeks and valleys, for the sake of the indivisible Union, and from time to time he would visit their graves.
Novel Chapter
Featured image for “Final Acts,  A Novel”

Joseph Allen Boone

Final Acts, A Novel

David Abbott was the last person the citizenry of Centerville expected to commit suicide, much less in broad daylight and by such unsightly means, his broken and bloody corpse splayed on impact from its five-story fall onto the sidewalk in front of the Playhouse Cinema.
Novel Chapter
Featured image for “You’re Not My Next Thought”

Kelly Nusz

You’re Not My Next Thought

Back in the spring, when the thawed warmth of early morning felt new through the concrete lattice of the parking garage, Eddie and Margaret would not have been so free in their intolerance of Marshall, or so close that handholding felt natural. In the spring they were just becoming accustomed to the others’ short stops, hard turns, and personal music preferences.
Novel Chapter

Essay

Creative Nonfiction

Nonfiction