There must be people who are fascinated with fly ribbon, who hand them as ornaments or squeeze the bottom portion into bottle tops so they look like a bouquet of flowers. The flies can’t resist the red hot mangoes in the eye, the slanted light of Buddha, slow dancing with a partner that wouldn’t let … Continue reading
Category Archives: Volume 45
Disrepair — Canon Parker
When I was a boy I had a drawer of toys in my room. Now they are all broken of course, even the old dresser. I left it by a dumpster in the alley. I remember laying on the floor of the YMCA swimming pool looking up at the legs kicking wildly overhead, the pressure … Continue reading
Rejection — Tanner Brossart
Every morning, on my way To work, I see a coffee cup On the ground Spilling its contents into the world. A hint of mocha mixes with many automobile Exhausts. I recognize the logo on the receipt Taped to the cup, the shop it came from Isn’t too bad. Maybe a bit bitter, but warmer … Continue reading
Rewind (Pangaea) — Tanner Brossart
Many would like to go back And fix problems long forgotten By everyone but them; I would like to rewind to When continents were one And watch them reunite, Cozy like lovers Once more. Continue reading
Lady Prufrock — Candice Glydwell
When I was nine, I lived to swim and pretend I was a mermaid—a shining, glamorous siren— who swam and sang for days not realizing the emerald ocean was a billiard table in the downtown bar. The siren’s lullaby is a drunken karaoke rendition of “I’m Only Happy When It Rains” buoyed by red-headed sluts … Continue reading
Injury — Domenic Scopa
All were moving. Teammates crowding Richie— fetal moaning cradling his fractured foot— Coaches huddled with first aid supplies, combing for a splint wrap. I had accidently slide-tackled Richie… My babysitter scolded me. Mud stained my soccer shorts. Inside my nightmare my babysitter’s there again stripping himself— unconsciously skillful— his skinny body walking window to window … Continue reading
Like that Cat in the Barn — William Jolliff
It arched its scabby back, spit a curse, and tried to look just larger than a man, a mix of malice and something worse, one part terror, two parts contempt. I hadn’t meant to trap her in the barn— she could’ve kept that loft for all I care. I’d never seen that look again until … Continue reading
Lynn Shore — William Doreski
This clapboard tenement complete with druggie roommates, broken locks, and a view of a sewage beach is the worst of your many rentals. Visiting frightens me. Tattoos wink in shadows. Nose and lip rings clatter as the young people fondle whatever bodies they can reach. The reek of poisoned rats in the walls sours my … Continue reading
Refugees — Leslie Philibert
What is left if nothing`s left? The tap loses teeth-blood, Each empty cup smiles with malice. We have fallen over the fence, Our pictures torn, a history in bags, We walk like a cluster of wraiths As dull legs trudge over stones. The old will wither with frost When the night comes sooner. And if … Continue reading
Fifi — Charles Rammelkamp
When I read about the accident, Glen tumbling off his roof like Icarus falling out of the sky, slamming into the pavement three stories down, snapping his neck, dying instantly, I remembered the fey lad in Boston, just out of the closet where he’d shut himself up for the first nineteen years of his Midwestern … Continue reading
Coe Review 