ISSUE 07
Steve Evans. Oteeyho Iro. Charles Haddox. Zama Madinana. Taylor Graham. Natalie Harris-Spencer. Jason Lobell. Maggie Yang. Aaron Weinzapfel. Meredith Wadley. Asma Al-Masyabi. Linda Neal. Shilo Niziolek. David A. Porter.
02
READ • WATCH • LISTEN
Hazem Fahmy checks us into the Diaspora Suite. Bethany Brengan tells us the things that are wrong with her, while Michal "MJ" Jones grows a tomb across their mouth. Rishita Acharya flips through her family album "like a cheap restaurant's menu." Abdulmueed Balogun calls it grace. James Croal Jackson shields the cat who lives with him from loud and unexpected noises. Ceridwen Hall introduces us to the Signal Corps women: if "the line is out of order," it’s been bombed. Miles Mikofsky fits his own lines together seamlessly, like baffling tsugite joinery.
Scott Nadelson captures the moment of capturing the moment. Zula Ovelgönne takes us on a walk with Grandpa Rog while Eddie Sourby fights with the doctors to get off the operation table. David Osgood lifts the silver lid as though diffusing a bomb. Daniel Romo forgets the fundamentals. Carly Berwick takes us to Chiapas, where large green leaves shudder in the wind of the car." Shailesh Bhat lets us in on how it all unraveled—and by the time Tyler Barton uncrumples the document, things are on fire.
POETRY
HAZEM
FAHMY
“Essay for the Erased”
and other poems
“Under the briefest scrutiny, / Egypt becomes unreal.”
BETHANY
BRENGAN
“Asclepeion”
and other poems
"deliquescing into leaf dust, / the permanent floor of Kentucky."
MICHAL
JONES
“I Hope It Didn't Hurt None.”
and other poems
“One thing whites are gonna do, it's be tortured.”
RISHITA
ARHARYA
“Striped Eel Catfish”
and other poems
“she has started watching a Bengali Youtuber / who lives in New York but cooks Bengali food/ in our kitchen/”
ABDULMUEED
BALOGUN
“Grace”
and other poems
“I will call it grace, again, again, and again / if my right hand concludes this poem / with its fingers, untampered.”
JAMES
CROAL
JACKSON
“The Solipsists”
and other poems
“We drink Lagunitas in a beam of window sunlight. One / of us will live forever in the simulation of our sandbox”
CERIDWEN
HALL
“Chronology”
and other poems
“When we are anxious, we like stories with rules / for time travel."
MILES
MIKOFSKY
“Close (the Widower)”
and other poems
“Under the thick brow of a wool winter cap — / Little daughter more stuck to your side than burrs.”
DANIEL
ROMO
“What You Won't Believe"
and other poems
“The CIA has its own Starbucks, but the baristas don't write / customers' names on the cups"
FICTION
TYLER
BARTON
"Whorl"
“Twice a year this happened, where my old friend invited a dozen of her friends, seemingly at random, for a salon—don’t call it an open mic—in her home in the hills.”
ZULA
OVELGÖNNE
"Grandpa Rog"
“I know he’s telling the truth when he stops walking to get his thoughts straight.”
SHAILESH
BHAT
"The Unraveling"
“The emperor’s procurement officer looked at the two visiting weavers sitting in front of him.”
SCOTT
NADELSON
"A Minor Blues"
“They are twenty-two, twenty-five, twenty-seven years old, but already they can imagine a moment when they re no longer here..”
DAVID
OSGOOD
"Places We Have Never Been"
“Marty was the antithesis of Terrance; he always wanted to be the superhero, but ended up half-sketched in a comic book, never to come alive in color."
CARLY
BERWICK
"The Scrape"
“Chiapas was green, overflowing with plantlife that seemed to spring up and out from the ground, and in the air was a fecal barnyard smell that floated above the roadside orchids and blue sage.”
WATCH
EDWARD
SOURBY
Edward Sourby is a 22-year-old transgender man attending SUNY Oswego for a degree in creative writing. His poetry and nonfiction works focus on themes of family, mental illness, and queer experiences. He plans to publish a book in the future but until then, you can read more here or at eddiesourboy.wordpress.com.
I HAVE ALWAYS LOOKED LIKE THIS
"When my primal instincts kicked in, I fought with the doctors to get off the operation table..."