After snows, Paul had to drive up to Denali to plow. He would drive an hour and a half up there and plow out the parking lot and driveway so if there were any visitors in the rental cabins they were able to get out. This time, it had snowed from […]
issue 96
Terry Dubow: Prufrock
The morning of the raccoons, I had the showerhead set on a hard pounding staccato. I was staring straight into the water, counting the intervals between the spurts, thinking of how much I wanted to avoid the two people on the other side of the door. That’s when I noticed that […]
Kerry Donoghue: Hunger
Buick DeGaulle did not turn his head in time after he belched. “Babe, please,” Glory complained from the kitchen floor underneath him. After six months of marriage, she was almost immune to the stench of bratwurst and white onions. But almost only counts in horseshoes, and now, with a child […]
Harold Whit Williams: Hawk Pride Mountain Nocturne
The deceased leave behind their voices. Some in shoeboxes Stacked in the back closet, Others under creaking steps, In leafwhisper, water murmur, highway hum. Most, middle of the night, seek us out With their quick-and-dead singsong. Disembodied, tremulous, Gusting down Off the pine-sided hill. An uncle’s high tenor; an aunt’s thick alto. A whole ragtag […]
Harold Whit Williams: Alabama Field Holler
I have decided to blame no one for my life. – Robert Bly Winter morning all hollowed-out, Whistling its one-note ballad. Morning bark-stripped, sanded-down, Held over a flame. A woodsmoke Morning piping clear across Childhood back pastures. Let me wake early to cop the riffs Of this bygone morning song. Let me stomp out with […]
Heidi Walls: It Left a Shadow on Me
that he was too quiet to ask and i to offer. shy beggar— watery eyes like riptides and his voice disappearing into the bricks.