by Lana Spendl
I walk into her office to give her papers
and she comes to mine to return them.
My walls are bare. Just a table, a chair.
Coffee pot in corner, next to a lamp
a coworker gave.
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Bare Necessities
Filed under Poetry
An Octopus Owner’s Manuel
by Corey Farrenkopf
I bought a mouse from the pet store. The clerk, Archie, whose name I finally learned from his laminated nametag, didn’t look at me. Two weeks later I bought a canary, orange as a tangerine. Archie remained aloof, his fingers scrolling through his smartphone. I thought he would notice when I purchased a hundred gallon aquarium, thirty some-odd fish, and all the filters/chemicals needed to develop an aquatic ecosystem in my bedroom. But no, Archie just chuckled under his breath at a photoshopped cat eating a taco. They didn’t sell cats. I would have bought one.
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Filed under Fiction
Girl at Window Seat Closes Shade, Flight FR 112
by Jim McKenna
Surging down aisles, haphazardly
filing into their quarters: sardines packed
air tight and pressurized.
One takes her seat next to me, distinctly
and routined, pale overhead lighting
reflecting off of her young scales.
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Filed under Poetry
Here and There
by Kate Tagai
Here: South Pacific, July 2011
Anna seems to grow from the woven mat spread between her and the dusty ground. Her skirt’s elastic stretched and sagging around her waist from so much wear, like Anna’s own skin. She is eighty, or maybe closer to ninety years old. She doesn’t know, but measures her years in world events and the thirteen children she has raised. Continue reading
Filed under Nonfiction
Man Inside an Unprepared Piano
by Peter Krumbach
The composer has inserted his head and upper torso
into the lacquered case of the grand piano.
Trembling harmonics rise through the symphony hall.
Opera glasses aim at his satin braided pants and black
swallow-tailed coat writhing under the open wing
of the Steinway. He resembles a mechanic
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Filed under Poetry
Hawaii Pacific Review 