Contents of the Newlyweds Kit given to me, in a yellow plastic bag, as a free gift from the State of Utah when I obtained my marriage license: 1 trial-size packet of Tide detergent with color-safe bleach 2 purse-size packets of Kleenex 1 trial-size box of Nabisco Wheat Thins crackers 1 romance novel about a […]
Issue 76
John King: The Omega of Mercer Rook
Outside, it was raining pianos: anxiousfaced, tumbling steinways reflected in his mottled blue irises, the lenses of his spectacles twitching upon each explosion, inkblack hair sleeked down in a immaculate shell, a brown rep necktie fastened by a lopsided windsorknot strangulating his pate (his face puffing, somewhat rubefacting with stress), yet his windowpane pantlegs churning […]
Andrea Luttrell: Envy
In absolute darkness you feel dizzy from the lack of light. You want to put your hands out to steady yourself. The wall against your back feels slimy, hard, smooth. Your feet are unstable, your torso shaky. You hold your hand in front of your eyes but nothing is there, as if the blackness has […]
Rachel Newcomb: Dissolution
*Italicized sections from Wallace Stevens, “Thirteen Ways of Looking At A Blackbird” II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds. In the city, I am never lonely. Riding the bus I feel the comfortable heft of the woman next to me, a total stranger, but our bodies touch […]
Liz Spikol: Wedding March
Thank god it didn’t rain, everyone said And I said, yes, thank god Though what I really wanted Was that the bruised sky Would open up, and the droplets, Fat and milky, Fall That breathless day I kept myself Whole by imagining: The tulle clotted with wet, The inexpert pawing with Damp shirt corners and […]
Peter Ramos: Watching Late-Night Hitchcock
And before we know it, the sexy lead is —Mother of God!—rubbed out. It turns out we don’t know exactly what we want. Rilke wrote that beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror. That’s fine for Germany, Prague or wherever. Not here. We like things clean: the boat flag snapping in the breeze, the […]