I Prefer the Praying Mantis
by Heather Rounds issue 77 In 2004 my mother and I bent spoons sitting in a circle with 15 other women on the floor of Reverend Anne’s tiny pink Victorian, in the Spiritualist village of Lily Dale, New York. “Tonight you are capable,” Reverend Anne said, patting her loud red hair. She opened the night […]
Follow the Leader
by Zilla Jones issue 77 Leader came home on a cloudy day during the wet season, when the noon sky was as dark as midnight and the rain rattled down like pebbles, tearing the palm leaves from the trees. It puddled in the trenches lining the island’s main roadway that ran between the airport and […]
Recipe for Adobong Palaka
by Yvanna Vien Tica issue 77 1. a. when she mistakes a frog For food she stores the children’s laughter as punishment 1. b. she is beguiled by their mouths how the tongues flickered like rabbits flashing through snow 2. how can you blame her when everything back home heated without warning flooded without ceasing […]
Rearticulation
by Anastasia Stelse issue 77 The archaeologist, too, came bearing bones. Textbook curvatures kept clean—His own a set in blue velvet. I roll them onto the table in our study. Build hands. Wire wrapped around each carpal connects to metacarpal. This way I can pose them, the un-matching set. Sometimes I intertwine the small left […]
When I Speak Up For Myself, It Sounds Like Killing A Lobster
by Allyn Bernkopf issue 77 I plunge a blade behind her head & rip abdomen away from carapace. Her mouths gape in silence as my bone splitter splits & I feel her last flinch shiver under my nails. I hover her body over a steaming bowl, new water— tomb—to call home. Ghost limb syndrome haunts […]