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Creative NonFiction Issue 30

Of What May Come

by Jill McCabe Johnson The thud of a suitcase upstairs, sink faucet turned on and off, a muffled voice lilting in question. As I lie awake in our bed and breakfast, the sounds of life—of other’s lives—hold comfort. They inhabit sequestered rooms, where unmasked breath can warm the nooks and pockets. Their voices curve around […]

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Issue 30 poetry

screen

by Dena Igusti TODAY EVIDENCE // HOLDS ITSELF // REASON TO PROVE MY HURT // A SERPENT SHEDS ITSELF // OF AN OLD SKIN // FORGETS WHAT IS LEFT BEHIND // I WANT TO REMOVE // CELLS, DEAD, GENETIC THAT HANG // OFF MY BODY // HOLD TRACES OF WHAT // WAS DONE TO ME […]

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Issue 30 poetry

Yellow-morning

by Abigail Chang Yellow-morning with too-heavy sun. Feeling sick from lethargy and not enough oranges. A mother dialing back your fingers splashing them quiet and brown. All the trees praying down at your porch.The sound of water.                 Eating citrus from a bowl. Light.         […]

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Issue 30 poetry

5,000 Ads a Day

by AC Dobell I want to steal them all,or own the rights to themlike an art collector. Pluck them one by oneoff the screens in Times Square,watch them disappearfrom the sides of highways. I will spare only “Farm Fresh Eggs”& the “Free Firewood” signsbecause I am feeling generous. I will leave up empty billboards& screens […]

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Issue 30 poetry

Ibis Reincarnated

by Haley Bell Keane On my way to work, a brown ibis walking in the grass.I almost pull over to ask about its feathering—do ibis havebrown plumage? A juvenile, maybe, or just some other bird—which birds look like ibis? Would itruin this poem if I knew? Would it be a different poem?Do I have the […]

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Issue 30 poetry

The Girl with a Pearl in Her Wrist

by Kristin Entler Where the bones meet. Right there below the pinkie’s metacarpal line. She knows it is a pearl because the doctors told her so. A baroque pearl, according to her medical charts. Though notations read that this is a best guess. That the only way to know the anatomy of the joint composite […]

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Issue 30 poetry

Burial Ground

by Ana Michalowsky Ten Practical Suggestions Skyline Cemetery, 2019 from Never the Same: Coming to Terms with the Death of a Parent by Donna Shuuman Get the Information You Need You may be surprised at the healing that can take place, not just for you, but for others who are keeping secrets or have held […]

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Issue 30 poetry

Violet Hour

by Kris Falcon Thyme shoots, dragon fruit sorbet,the market not marked by season or place.A spigot for pots of chai. Free sun golds.No one will think to look here, a hobbycity with no knobs.You are always seeing faceson tenements with no numbers, in the simple-knuckled branches where parking ends, whereyou picture desires ripen. It’s makrut […]

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Issue 30 poetry

School Assembly

by Grace Wagner What they said: There may be some in this auditorium. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. There are a lot of kids here. There may be some girls here that will turn lesbian. We don’t know. But it’s serious. Don’t kid yourselves about it. They […]

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Issue 30 poetry

Marco Island

by Kevin Norwood Marco Island Florida, November 2021 Waves lap cautiously at the shore, where a one-legged sandpiper hops and pecks at biofilm shimmering in mid-morning sun. We step carefully around and overthe morning’s wide swath of shells, mindful of our bare feet; stooping here and there to pick up specimens I will cradle in […]