Cover art “Landscape Grain” by Elenore Leonne Bennett

In this issue

Curtis James McConnell

CROSS-EYED MARIA, HER SISTER TERESA, and SOPHIA, ALL PREGNANT at ONCE

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Cross-eyed Maria,
Her sister Teresa,
And Sophia,
All pregnant at once
Blame it all on Alfredo
That pendejo from Waco
‘Cept nobody’s seen him for months.

In the little cantina
Cerveza mas fria
And pizza
They sell by the slice.
And a warm afternoon
In the back room
Of the saloon
Is God’s definition of nice… Read More

Caitlin McCrory

The Kill Floor

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The clack of your boots / on my hardwood floor
………is something I imagine

—————-the livestock come to listen for / and whether or not
………there’s a rhythm they instinctively know / before you lock them in… Read More

Caleb J oakes

The World Wants to See

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Corona is smoother than I expected. Given my background I feel like I should’ve had a Corona a long time before I turned twenty-one. Growing up as a lifeguard in Florida it’s hard for me to believe this is the first time I’ve ever had one. But I know why that is, just like I know why drinking this beer turned into me writing a story about it.

The reason why I haven’t had a Corona until today was because of the bikini my girlfriend wore three years ago (she’s my ex-girlfriend now). We were at the Pensacola Beach with some friends, right at the beginning of the school year. The bikini she was wearing that day was my favorite one. It had Corona written across the ass in the famous, old English script…. Read More

Danilo John Thomas

William Dixon

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The train isn’t deep in the river, but you have to jump in upstream to grab onto the chimney, the currents too fast otherwise and it’ll drag you right on by. My brother, Cassidy, he doesn’t care about the train like I do, though. He just likes to jump from the bridge. He was throwing gainers off it this morning, and by the afternoon he could run alongside the guardrail and throw a back flip over the side, his head just missing the cement as his legs wrapped over his chest. I told him he was going to crack his skull, but I was just jealous about the trick. I am the older brother. I should be coming up with the tricks. He didn’t say much about my warning, smiled, kept on jumping… Read More

Louis Bourgeois

To Lose a Job is to be Free

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Then one day Cora left and suddenly I was all alone in the terrible 1972 white trailer home with the burgundy trimming that I bought for $600.00 that I received from a life insurance policy my grandmother had taken out on me when I was born in 1970. There was a limb lose clause to the insurance policy and I received exactly $1000.00 for losing my left arm that year; for exactly eight months I had entered the wonderful world of amputees, the exact amount of time Cora and I had been together… Read More