THE RESCUE by Laura Bailey

“ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT to do this?” the kid asks, holding back the roller skates. He’s maybe 16.“I’m sure,” Claudia says through clenched teeth. She’s still burning over the newcomer’s comments at the meeting earlier, and she’s in no mood for this.

The kid looks doubtful. “I gotta get my manager.” (read more)

I’M THE ONE WHO SAVED YOU FROM THE FEROCIOUS BUTTERFLIES by Wally Rudolph

MAN - EARLY 40s, MIXED-RACE - enters, shakes off the rain from his jacket, sees WOMAN - EARLY 40s, GERMAN - seated at the window on a low wooden bench, already sipping her coffee.

Man goes to the counter to order. The BARISTA, young tattooed woman, steps over.  (read more)

TWO POEMS by Jari Bradley

A FIST CAREENS INTO A FACE
that is not my mother’s 
& a crowd cheers.

I bunch my pudgy fingers...  (read more)

ARRIETA 410 by Margaret Grant

LATE NOVEMBER, DEER SEASON and Carly LaFontaine stood on the cracked and weedy cement apron outside the empty barn, waiting for her dogs. To the east the blue hump of Layton Mountain was blurred with flying snow. The tin roof of the old barn keened… (read more)

TWO POEMS by Willie Kinard III

DO NOT HOLD EYE CONTACT too long. Mention / the weather, your grandmother’s quilting, the length / of time it takes to stitch a bass clef into / the voice of your conscience. admire the JET beauty / of the week. do not hold your back like her. / take the flat wing… (read more)

BLUE HORSE by Mark Jacobs

THE SIGNS OF DECLINE were there. The trick he taught himself was to see them as single events, unconnected. November, a cool evening. In the central plaza the church of San Lino was solidly black and silent. The municipal building, whose classic façade attracted the camera phones of tourists by day, was shuttered. A donkey clattered past on stiff legs ... (read more)

THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
by J. Hardy Carroll

THE MAN AT THE AMERICINN would not take cash. “I am afraid I need a major credit card, sir,” he said in an Indian accent. He looked afraid, white eyes jutting and forehead glistening…(read more)

TWO POEMS by Josh Corson

I LOSE YOU IN THE LIGHTS.
A fistful of cowhide,

haloed & white-hot—shot 
across the church’s parking lot . (read more)

BLACK TROUBLE: MOON
by Sam Lane

THE OVER BAKED SUN CRUSTS over and cracks as the black shake
hog-heavy paws of two blue nosed pits—the size of planets—lug
the lunar Caesar. His stubble is lapis, and lips cage teeth…(read more)

THE OCEAN AND THE BAG AND THE BAG OF THE OCEAN
by Kara McMullen

WHAT IF THIS IS A STORY about a woman who visits the ocean, maybe for the first time? Physically she won’t be described in great detail, but she does have straight dark hair with bangs that hang in her eyes. There is a small indent on her left nostril… (read more)

TWO POEMS by Robert Miltner

FOLLOW THE BURNING INSIDE your sinuses, nostrils, throat. Walk the rue of / lamentation that stings like bitter sugar. It is a city constructed on / evaporated estuaries by sailors, mariners, seafarers, seadogs. You will / know it by its three sodium pillars… (read more)

THE BENCH OPPOSITE
by Nicola Vulpe

I AWOKE WITH A START. On the bench opposite,
a woman asleep, in her arms an infant.

I’m on a train, the landscape
clattering by all wrong, the trees… (read more)

FEATURED ARTIST Melanie Picardo Liu

MELANIE PICARDO LIU IS A VISUAL ARTIST born, raised and currently residing in San Francisco.

By day, she  builds digital experiences for companies like Zendesk, Lyft, and Eventbrite. By night she makes “rainbow bacon.” She likes astrology, crystals, dance parties, golden retrievers, marshmallow treats, noodles, and xylophones.  (read more)