Blind, he wandered about in the forest, eating nothing but grass and roots, and doing nothing but weeping and wailing over the loss of his beloved wife. — from “Rapunzel” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1857, tr. Ashliman) Into the thorns you fell, a poor thing, to become blind eater of grass and […]
Contributors 86
Mary McMyne: Irène Joliot-Curie
As a girl I learned the elements. With a pencil my mother Marie sketched the shapes of compounds: the honeycomb of water, the zigzag of sugar, the gridiron of salt. This is the way it is, she said. Everything has its own form. I believed her until the day I saw the woman in the […]
Mary McMyne: The Butterfly Dome
Grand Isle, Louisiana On the way to the Butterfly Dome, leaves leapt from the trees. A black truck weaved across the highway, its bumper stuck with eight letters in gold: R.I.P. STEVE. My daughter cried. My son tickled her toes. Hush, he said. We’re almost there, almost. Inside the dome, butterflies twitched their […]
Tim McLafferty: Noh for Dudes
What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be. —Capuchin Crypt, Rome Downer. Yeah. The thing is, they’re right; at least about the second part. Yep. So, what’s the point of all this ruminating on Death, anyway? I think it’s to make you appreciate life. […]
Shane Manieri: Let the Flood Gates Open
Look into the eyes of him, the eyes of every man—face, skin, jars of clay— pristine, perfect, the moon (mirrors of itself): day glow, an Indian sunset. The light sucks into him. Sparkling dew of the brow, Revealing, he says. Gushing a rain cloud that can no longer hold itself of love. Stealing into autumn, […]
Shane Manieri: So When We Were Buds
This obsession I have with roses, with you, eloquently, day and night, makes no sense. It plays over and over in my mind. Stigma, far better than actual life; comedy, far worse. To stand in front of my light, why place hypocrisy before me like that? Why shimmerless? Our biography of a sneeze. How a […]