A Literary Magazine Sponsored by The University of Maine at Farmington
Prompt: What do you look forward to every week? TW: hints at depression – I don’t think I look forward to anything every week… I don’t look forward to time off work. I don’t look forward to work. I don’t look forward to meals.
Trigger Warning: death, gore, and murder. Black eyes stare at me through the green night, a thundering boom shattering the wind into broken pieces and leaving everything in silence. I … Continue Reading Death in Decision
Trigger Warnings: Mentions of miscarriage, suicide, murder, and slight gore —- “You never told me your name,” the woman says. She smiles, just like my late wife. She licks her lips. Her dark cherry lipstick shines in the pale moonlight.
“I’m not sure why you need to know my name,” I say, fiddling with the black lighter in my hand. “We’re not friends.”
“Really?” the woman asks. She drops her finished cigarette and puts it out before she digs her heel into my sneaker. I wince.
CALLA SALLOW lays in a mangled nest of sheets. The room is tiny and there are articles of underclothes strewn about, all well-worn hand-me-downs. Light streams in from a tiny window on the far wall, illuminating Calla’s rat’s nest of blonde hair. She rolls over and groans when she hears the voice of her boss, MRS. DELANEY, call from down the stairs.
Prompt: Write about a time you watched the sunrise. — I have seen the sunrise several times, but the most memorable time must be when Andrew, Aurora, Camilla, and I went on a trip about a year ago.
I’m appalled at the state of you. I didn’t know lives could be so fragile until I held your beating heart in the palm of my hand. You look so … Continue Reading Bargaining
Prompt: Did you have a “lovey” as a child? Do you still have one? – I didn’t really know what this question meant by a “lovey” but Aurora told me that it was a stuffed animal, blanket, or toy that one was very emotionally attached to and viewed as a comfort, often not wanting to be apart from it.
Trigger warning: implied self harm, implied suicide The tiny moth bumps against the window againdrawn to the light of the overhead lamp.I debate whether to turn the light offor open … Continue Reading Shhh.
Trigger Warning: mentions of death There are wolves in the chamber of a gun, a requiem prayer, unspooled yellow police line, gawking neighbours behind window blinds, nothing like this happens … Continue Reading The Murders
I’m woken by the aroma of coffee. Somehow, that flavorful odor can reach from a kitchen sideboard to a man, one flight up, as he yawns and sniffs. I have … Continue Reading Morning Coffee
you once told me to not let the things i can’t control get to me, and while i am learning from your patience and virtues of acceptance, i still feel … Continue Reading sixth bug correspondence
is it just me or is dread crowdingthe lake like cheap fog still i feed the white semi-wild chunks of chatterthat make home on the dock i feed the duckscylindrical … Continue Reading don’t know how 2laugh
James Croal Jackson is a Filipino-American poet in film production. His latest chapbooks are A God You Believed In (Pinhole Poetry, 2023) and Count Seeds With Me (Ethel Zine & … Continue Reading Paper Plates
Spring didn’t used to come on like gang busters too hot, too soon and stay without relief for the summer or if it did, it would be a one or … Continue Reading Ode to What Once Was a NH Spring
-for my mother In glass house day filled with bromeliads and sliced bananas you raised your arms to a symphony of wings. Bits of colored movement, frenzied like holidays, swirled … Continue Reading Lepidoctora
Trigger warning: mentions of animal death Seen on video: two males strut up to a female, gobbling, displaying. Their snoods are engorged. Muzak plays. One of them twists violently, drops. … Continue Reading Turkeys