poems: Leigh Phillips

Dear History, For Howard Zinn I have tried to reinvent you, as I insert a song into the mouths of every breathless-beating war-drum in the chests of time and now– History, I have held the beautiful bodies of insurrection. I have held hymns heavy as sins and sang light as water and flour. Gloria Steinem and...

poem: Derek Williams

No Time For Bravery The Sundance Kid doesn’t think of himself as a gunslinger or thief. He’s an artist. The barrels of his pistols defy gravity, scrambling its rules. He doesn’t blink when he shoots, doesn’t ever miss. In papers and on wanted posters, in lazy cowpoke towns and rich gold rush...

poem: Thomas Fucaloro

Thomas and the Purple Crayon So there was no moon in the sky so he drew one and then a house with some windows, a door, a kitchen, a table and then a mother and a father. The first time I told my parents I have a cocaine problem they looked at me odd like I just told them I want to run for the...

poems: Stevie Edwards

Notes for a Cosmopolitan Woman There are loves who will kiss your thighs and not wince at the decade-old haunts of stretch marks. Remember your father examining the faint red lines, devil’s fingernails on a chalkboard of pale skin, the sting of ocean, a new bathing suit you’d saved lunch money...

poem: Kevin Devaney

Love Song for the Zombie Apocalypse I love the zombie apocalypse because it means that you are free. Freedom is not the same as safety, but you walk with fewer hands in your pocket not as many television words in your ears. I’d like to say, I want you to be there with me. I’d like to but, they will...

fiction: David Cotrone

Between the Burns The emergency responders will find him stumbling through his kitchen. They will guide him outside and douse him with water. They will not put an oxygen mask on him until the burning itself is over, since, as you know, straight oxygen mixed with fire triggers an explosion. They will manage...

poem: Kevin Coval

portrait of a slumlord the slumlord is real.$ a short man pulls into the affordable housing complex his company built on greased government contracts. row-homes. non-descript. grey, cheap looking. everything in the area is tired. (except) the slumlord drives a jew canoe, in the winter wears fur. a diamond...