The Last of El Dorado by T. L. Ransome “La Reina! La Reeina!” they cried, stamping mud-worn heels on the dented boards. But she was in pieces in the desert, miles of lace-melt, skin flinted red between saguaros. The tall…
Gibbet
Gibbet by Mark Cassidy Once I was a young boy, clambered limber, surefooted, into an empty gibbet and swung the blackwood, gristle-crusted cage bang tight. Sat squat-faced, open-legged, in the charnel basket, rocking in the swooping sea fret neath racing…
Tussaud
Tussaud by Noa Covo She grows up in a house of abandoned arms and legs. She is taught to count on wax hands severed at the wrist, she caresses faces that end at the neck as her mother dusts. As…
Regarding Gray, Carmine, Pyrope
Regarding Gray, Carmine, Pyrope by Mandira Pattnaik Gray is a morass of doubt and indifference and coot is a water bird with black feathers and a white bill. Black and white. Not Gray. Not in the sunlight. So she’s come…
She arrived at the mountain hideout on horseback
She arrived at the mountain hideout on horseback By Bryan Harvey She arrived at the mountain hideout on horseback—rain evaporating from the leaves in a gray shroud. He couldn’t see her. Having tossed his spectacles to the ground, he had…
1916
1916 by Jac Harmon You lie on your back, staring up at the sky, an arcing, heart-aching infinity of blue, stretching beyond the limits of your sight, beyond the limits of the mud that sucks and clings, feels its way…
We, the School Dental Nurses, 1960
We, the School Dental Nurses, 1960 by Frankie McMillan We are the dental nurses, our cardigans tulip red, our feet rubber soled, we are the foot soldiers, we wave to the bomber jets as they unleash their arsenal of bright…
Tapeworm
Tapeworm by Kristen Loesch Listen in English: Listen in Mandarin: Mei knows she has tapeworms because she’s felt them squirming, slithering, shimmying in her belly since she swam here from Shenzhen, or maybe it’s just one long tapeworm longer than…
Artifacts
Artifacts by Veronica Montes The archaeologist, I’ve noticed, cycles through the same two hundred or so photographs and stories. Tonight she will post a beaded dress from the reign of King Khufu, but this afternoon she has shared the ivory…
cottonmouth
cottonmouth by Audra Kerr Brown ma dont sit with the baby no more not since pa caught her starin barebreasted at the lantern light found his boy beneath the feather tick pale and limp as a stillborn pig pa he…