The Scorpio

by Khadijah Abdul Haqq

On the first day of the conference, I tell myself that I don’t believe in zodiac signs and that I must give people a chance based on their personalities and not where the sun was when they were born. I remind myself that not everyone born in January shares my unequivocal thirst for solitude or management. And that I am a Muslim and referring to zodiac signs is against my religion. Continue reading

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Along Nippon Way

by Morgan Tayu-Schulz

Was there a boy?
Did he have a face?
Did he have hair?
Or was that just
His silhouette
Standing there
By a mikan tree
Still and distant
Reminding me
Of me Continue reading

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar

by Masha Kisel

On Monday, I ate three Taco Bell Crunch Wraps, two bean burritos, one Fiesta Burrito and an order of Nachos Bellgrande. Washed it down with a large Coke. I practice in the mirror first. Tom always asks if my stomach hurts after, but it never does. Eating in front of the camera is like not eating at all. You’re a second person, a second stomach, a non-corporeal being, stuffing a hologram mouth for ED teens, bored housewives, and perverts. Continue reading

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Provincial Girl

by Michael Roque

A provincial girl,
her state is vegetative
as the moors she walks. Continue reading

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Under the Pear Tree

by Asa Merritt 

In the moments before she bit him, Belle was running faster than I’d ever seen her run. A black mass zooming across the immense sunset, towards the pear tree, towards my nephew underneath the pear tree, who even then was about to throw another pear. Pelt her, another time, even though she’d snapped her massive jaws in his face only hours before. I saw it happen, walked from the screen porch to the yard, lit a cigarette, and told him not to treat her like that. This time, when the pear struck her face as she ran, she didn’t snap her jaws, she opened them and kept them open. I screamed at Belle as I ran from the porch and the door slammed behind me, then it slammed again, and his mother was beside me, and we ran. Continue reading

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