We Gathered Them by Hand Awen Fenwick __________ We came up from the subway.Color hit the eyes. The Mall disappeared under thousands of panels.Names snapped in the wind. Some held photographs.Some were weighted downwith stuffed animals. Some werea name,two dates. I was nineteen,my first flagstill pinnedto my backpack.Those I had…
Read MoreThe Wind Blows heavy Lila-Josey James __________ I look through the transom with two coffees in hand. There’s a pink in the clouds like peaches. We spin out the polished revolving door, and are emptied onto the street. The crosswind hits Marie in the face while brushing past me. Immediately,…
Read MoreJelly Roll Pride Abigail Bentz-Stevens __________ __________ Abby Stevens is a life long artist with a penchant for pen and ink, nature and chaos. There is a reason she uses the handle Chaos and Chlorophyll. Her art is greatly influenced by her ADHD and the noise in her brain and…
Read MoreOn Death & Dating Morgan Rose-Marie __________ It is fall 2016. The single, sky-blue folder sitting in the top-right corner of my desktop antagonizes me. The white letters of its title spell “Megan”—the name of one of my closest friends. I met her at work—she taught biology in the classroom…
Read MorePride: June ’26 Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing Editor: Taryn White Guest/Assistant Editor: Robbie Hess Associate Editor: Leah Joseph Assistant Editors: Jade Turner Intern: Sam Manuel Molly Klingler, “Influence of Identity,” oil paint Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson Letter from the Guest Editor by Robbie Hess Fiction…
Read MoreDavid Waters __________ Familiar 2025, ink and ochre. __________ Studies of the Queen 2025, ink and guache. __________ Cole, the grinning Familiar. __________ David Waters is an Australian sculptor. His primary focus over the last 5 years has been works on paper using acrylic, ink and collage. __________ << Back…
Read MoreKansas, anyway Rachele Salvini __________ Since I moved here, I’ve been looking up horrible Kansas stories to avoid thinking. I read about a mother who never let her kid out, so he grew up in his room, never able to meet other children. He sat in his own feces, crawling…
Read MoreMissy’s Animal Rescue Bryn Gribben __________ Missy herself sits behind the desk, loggingadoptions, barely looks up from the screen.“You can just open up the cageand pet them, if you want.” Frowsy-haired, her giant breasts are wet from doing flea dips, “forty done already—twenty left to go.” Grimy with the musk of…
Read MoreAncestor, Mother, Goddess Anissa Lynne Johnson __________ 8,000 years ago, at the dawn of human civilization in the Fertile Crescent, rodents plagued the settlements, attracted by crops and the by-products of agriculture. Humans proved defenseless against the hordes searching for an easy meal, reproducing at exponential rates. No Neolithic weapons…
Read MoreCritters Sharon Hoffman __________ Decades ago, we let the back lawn go wild, and now the marsh oaks dwarf the house. There are loquats, sweet bay, red bud, cherry laurel, saw palmetto and Spanish bayonet. The Cape Girardeau has long since swallowed up the fence. It’s become a dense thicket…
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