By Ruchi Sneha Prologue Dear Hoshi, It’s raining and the Earth smells like you. This is a different kind of rain - impure, acidic, laden with the debris of countered missiles. It burns through marble towers, eats through the iron foundations of my house. It tastes like our sweat from when we were still young, … Continue reading Of What Remains When All Is Lost
Pancakes For The Universe
By Ella Andreasen Our cosmic understanding is a stream of events that transcends time and challenges everything that you previously believed to be true. You all have spent decades studying us, and yet, what is understood is nothing. What you’ve come to know is the physical. What you don’t understand is everything that lies in … Continue reading Pancakes For The Universe
Welcome to America
By John A. Tures “Colonel Martin Carmichael, much has been written about your heroics at the end of the Vietnam War, rescuing so many Americans and Vietnamese,” the reporter from The Washington Morning Herald began. “I just have to know—where did your courage and sense of duty come from, sir? Why were you willing to … Continue reading Welcome to America
Puddle Love
By Duane Anderson The weather change was a welcomed change,one from negative degrees to one of mid-sixtiescausing the snow to melt,the formation of puddles,and flowing streams into the streets,just what two little boys were waiting foras they rode their strider bike and peddle carthrough the water,loving every minute of it,not missing a single puddle of … Continue reading Puddle Love
Blue
By Nancy Stephan It’s the gloomy harvest goldthat swallows an entire houseon a hot boring summer daywhen your mom won’t get out of bedeven though it’s two in the afternoonand the square-faced fan has been blowingits hot breath across her face since nine last night.Never mind that you crossed Grant Streeton your bike and spent … Continue reading Blue
East of Midnight
By Benjamin Karren School’s eulogy crackles in trillium-laced mountain air—twenty fence posts down a dirt road, a cremationfor chemistry finals and college rejection letters,a black Camaro thrumming Stairway to Heavengasoline-drenched cliques ignited by graduation. My burned CDs and letterman jacket obsolete—we won’t be remembered after tomorrow.My scorched pep rally speech, charred saxophone solo,engulfed chess positions … Continue reading East of Midnight
Three Little Things
By Anna Seidman In my traditionThe world is sustained by three thingsTruth, justice and peaceBut if “truth” includes the infinite experiences, thoughts and realitiesOf every living thing“Justice” means eight billion conceptsOf right and wrongAnd “peace” is something we all believe in,Until it gets in the way of everything else we believe in,Then it doesn’t fit … Continue reading Three Little Things
Bayreuth
By Jack D. Harvey Bayreuth was published in pif, which ceased publication a couple of years ago. Bird Wagner'svast moaty throatsings bastions of eaglesup through thesmoky aether.Either he's mador me:one.Before the honest soundBrünhildcrashes intoheroic bric-a-brac;pukka Mercurycrowds abovethe storm of notes,landscapes of cymbalsand violins;the escarpments of Mosessmoke like chimneys,dwarfing the vast vaultfilled with themusic's life.Across the … Continue reading Bayreuth
Mothers and Sons
By Stan Wild I look at him now, as I become conscious that my eyes have been on my screen, and I realise that he has lolled across my line of vision so as to meet my gaze. My son is in the nappy that he slept in, and so I wipe him down and … Continue reading Mothers and Sons
A Game of Chess
By Michael J. D'Alfonsi The first time I played Brooke Davidon she was twelve and had just discovered how to weaponize her voice. “Checkmate,” she declared, the moment her hand left the bishop. Her tone was almost apologetic, like she genuinely pitied my stupidity. It was six in the evening and the windowless multi-purpose room. … Continue reading A Game of Chess
Academy of the Heart And Mind 