issue nO.4: The Anniversary Issue!

  Here we are, with Issue nO.4. It was a long time coming due in no small part to the deluge of submissions brought on by our new Submishmash submissions manager system (try it!) and our recent listings in various popular ‘where to submit’ type periodicals. We moved our workdays indoors, away from...

poem: Chavisa Woods

  Time Isn’t After Us       the remnants of heart muscles may appear as cornfields when baked in the exposure of successive country noons   our fleshmounds were given screaming to screaming, fed red meat early ,    sent  out to dig                   claws in...

fiction: Alexios Moore

Novelita   Edwin propped his head up and wiped the drool from his cheek. His eyes came into focus on the letters scratched into the desk: BKILLAS. A crudely sketched anime thug, all bicep and thigh, held the bubble letters above his head like Atlas. Edwin began tracing his pencil back and forth along...

the conversation: Mindy Nettifee and Jon Sands

  Mindy Nettifee is trouble. She’s the author of “Sleepyhead Assassins” and the brand new “Rise of the Trust Fall” from Write Bloody Publishing (a book I nearly threw off the Brooklyn bound F train after reading the poem, “The Bent Kinetics of Memory”). Mindy’s poems thrive on saying...

works in progress: Patrick Rosal

THE BONESHEPHERD’S LAMENT In 2007, I visited Laoag, capital of Ilocos Norte province in the Philippines and the birthplace of my mother. I took various raw footage with no more than a Canon Coolpix, 5 megapixels of resolution. Most phones do better than that these days. And I wasn’t shooting at the...

photo essay: Francisco Guerrero

HIJAB ON/OFF Francisco Guerrero ” This portrait session was shot a few years ago in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with the help of a few of my local friends. As a teenager, I lived in KL for a couple of years, so it was good to be back to explore the city I grew up in. At the time, we conceptualized the...

poem: Angel Nafis

  Be Blk! For/after Avery R. Young   Be crucifixion Blk! Be everything remind me of my daddy Blk! Fried, dyed, and laid to the side, Blk! Everybody’s goddaughter Blk! Been an Auntie since I was 6, Blk! Don’t like my name in your mouth, blk! Only my Mama say my name right, Blk! Teeth can’t get...

poem: Geoff Kagan Trenchard

  The man he intended to shoot   You can see he is sick to his stomach and wants to vomit because he just shot a man he did not intend to shoot. -Michael L. Rains, defense attorney for Johannes Mehserle commenting on the video footage of Mehserle shooting Oscar Grant in the back while Grant is...

poem: Marie Elizabeth Mali

    Taken for Granted   Hands leave behind more than prints— the knitting and the ripping, empty grape stems in a red bowl, a bruise. When I said engine I meant death. Grace invites us into itself so consistently, we can refuse it. Stars uncover their eyes in the dark. Lightning always...

fiction: Brian Katz

Introduction to Greek Mythology 1. Before: She smells like cigarettes, lots of cigarettes; and William watches her smoke, every morning, one after another, unfiltered Camels. He has been watching her do this for weeks and the only words he could say to her, “Excuse me,” were unintentional and sloppy. He...

poem: Ainsley Drew

    Different Names for Homonyms   He has snowglobes for fists. He picks his teeth with atlases. He casts a shadow in the shape of an empty bird’s nest. He cannot take your calls right now. He likes blueberries in pancakes and girls in light dresses. He sometimes squints when he...

poem: Christina Springer

  The Women Think About Holidays (for Henry White)   the men are important.  the men must not be disturbed.  the men are thinking. the men are talking.    the women are doing.  the women have taken their wares to market. the women have tended their fields well. the women teach their children...