I was almost eighteen years old but that day, the day of the bachelor party, I was so nervous you’d have thought I was twelve and had never seen a girl take off her clothes before. I paced around the house, took a walk along the train tracks, even tried to read an old book … Continue reading
Category Archives: Volume 43
Have you ever gone to a carnival and got on a ride with a girl you didn’t know and it should’ve been sketchy but it wasn’t then the ride turned out to be ferocious and made you want to vomit a thousand dragons, but, ironically, your sister threw up when you got home? — Paulina Harrison
Well I have and it was awesome. Continue reading
Tigers on the Savanna — Sharon Houk
“The baby’s on the roof,” Charlotte said. I looked up to see my wife of nine years frozen like a statue with a long slender finger pointing out of the open balcony door. I took long measured CEO strides toward the door and in my best Just-In-Time management voice said, “What’s going on here, honey?” … Continue reading
The Tide — Carol Scott-Conner
The tide rushes through a chasm in your heart. A rift, where there should be a wall. An abyss, where there should be a barrier. And that tide carves a canyon, water wearing away rock, blood on tissue, tearing the living fabric of your life asunder. Your head bobs from the force of your pulse. … Continue reading
2 Minutes 16 Seconds Inside Her Head — Stefani Wright
“Don’t you believe me?” you say. And all I could think of was the fact that every person has the capacity to lie; in fact, a person on average lies at least six times a day and who’s to say that this isn’t one of those lies? Maybe you hadn’t reached your six lie quota, … Continue reading
Be Better — Suzanne Richardson
I got out my trail map when I heard someone found Jimmy’s body. I had a feeling I knew where: the North Carolina/Tennessee border on the Appalachian Trail. Reports said he was shirtless, grey and rubbery, covered in leaves—in some ditch or depression in the earth. I thought about the men, the ones traveling with … Continue reading
Lucky — Chelsey Clammer
Dulululululululululute! Dong dong dong dong dong! It’s the sound of a yes. She is lucky again. The dinging continues as she extracts her mouth from the lever of the slot machine, as she wipes the saliva away from the corners of her mouth and pumps her fists into the air. Another $400 won. She has … Continue reading
The Lie of the Stones — Ace Boggess
He couldn’t tell if it were a hillock or another grave. Bernard stepped up the slight rise, black shoes digging into the mud and wet grass. Streaks of brown already coated the legs of his ashen slacks like flames painted on the side of some jock’s sports car. Luckily though, the rain stopped around twilight, … Continue reading
Hard Shell, Soft Shell — Michael Chaney
It was morning and although I had to get to work my mom drifted in and out of fantasy like a cinder in a snow globe. Except her globe would be filled with bullshit. The same old bullshit to be exact—how my manager at the pet store, Jenks, was smart just like my Daddy back … Continue reading
Current Issue: Volume 43, Number 1 — Poetry Issue, Fall 2012
Cover Photo by Alison Charles. Being All the Bus Drivers Simultaneously, An Argument for the Twentieth Century, Walt Disney — Daniel Poppick Turning Early, Ice — James Daniels Leaving Men in the Midwest. Or, She Dreams She Slips — Lynn Lifsen Taxidermy, Bret — Jill Whitehouse Barbed Wire ,Electric, The Cat on Page Ten — Sioned … Continue reading
Coe Review 