by Aref Moalemi
Between the deaf and the mute
silence speaks in sign language—
maybe the last living tongue
left
if they don’t cut off their hands. Continue reading
Language
Filed under Poetry
Folded Flag
by N.C. Miller
When Amelia Birch limped up to her late husband’s burial service wearing a walking cast and dragging a sledgehammer, the crowd gasped and the minister stopped preaching. She’d been in the car accident that killed her husband a week before – that much was known – but she was released from the hospital the same night and hadn’t been seen since. There’d been a lot of talk as to what happened and why she’d skipped the funeral. So, when she showed up at the cemetery, dressed for church but looking angry, she had everyone’s full attention. Continue reading
Filed under Fiction
The Prodigal Son Never Returns
by E.G. Willy
Mom says, “The nineteenth, that’s an important date. I don’t remember why.”
“It’s John’s birthday.”
“Sorry?” she says, reaches for her hearing aides, tries to adjust their volume.
“John, it’s his birthday.”
She thinks about this. “Did I send him something?” Continue reading
Filed under Nonfiction
The Roommate From Somewhere Else
by Zoran Ernjakovic
Brian’s new roommate arrived three weeks into the semester, dragging nothing but a small silver cube that hummed when you got too close.
“My name is Zyx,” he said, extending a hand that gripped just a beat too long. “Pronounced like ‘zicks.'”
He was clearly an alien. Continue reading
Filed under Fiction
Endings
by J. Alan Nelson
The hospice room smells like antiseptic
and the ghost of cigarettes she swore she quit in ’89.
Everyone pretends this is normal,
the way we pretend the body isn’t a house
slowly evicting itself,
one lamp at a time. Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
Hawaii Pacific Review 