by Belana Beeck
There are many secrets here we must discoverRead More »
As everything seems to be undercover
Sand Angels
by Darcy Duncan
Into the dark we swim.
You tell me your name underwater.
It sounds different than it did on land.
More like mine: anonymous.
Read More »The Real Willy Wonka
by Blaire Baron
It is still dark and the early morning cacophony has yet to greet the day. The others have already left and Washington knows they aren’t waiting for him, not this time. With no Mum to wake him, he’s getting better at finding his clothes in the dark. Washington scoops up a sticky ball of yesterday’s ugali and pops it in his mouth before rushing out of the ramshackle maze. He zig-zags past sleeping mothers and babes. Everything here is laid bare, there are no doors and there’s nothing here to steal.
Some might call it a labor camp but to Washington, it’s home. Out of the maze now, he runs toward the line of humming shadows holding machetes. Washington grins up at one of his uncles.
Read More »A Flare
by William Doreski
A flare on a dark horizon
draws our attention inland.
Something metallic is happening,
something more primal than war.
You want to slap on a backpack
heavy with food and munitions
and hike to the edge of things,
Read More »
Sphinx Street
by Glen Armstrong
It has barbs but doesn’t cling,
seeps through one’s shoes
like puddle water.
It once slowed down to listen
Read More »
LA Live
by Ebony Haywood
After sunset— after parking meters doze to sleep, after attorneys in starched suits snap their suitcases shut, after happy hour at City Tavern and rush hour traffic on Broadway, after tired fathers in high-rise condos feed, bathe, and tuck their children into bed— there is energy: emerging from the warm concrete to electrify the air across Figueroa, Wilshire, and Olympic, the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. I feel this energy pulsing through the lights of The Staples Center, swarming with Kings Hockey fans donning oversized black and white jerseys. Outside the Regal Movie Theater, men in their blue jeans and women in their high heels, looking awkward, await their dates. I see their eyes brighten and then avert with acute embarrassment from the gazes of passersby who don’t wave and smile back.
Read More »The Person Whose Face I’ve Taken
by Seohyun Ryu
Stranger
held me with only one hand
“who are you” i cried
she whistled “i am you but smaller and weaker”
Read More »Turning Disasters Off: Backyard Edition
by Terry Trowbridge
You can’t cut back on funding! You will regret this!
– Transportation Advisor, SimCity 2000
Platonic Love
by Jess Whetsel
There is a room in my heart
that only you can enter. You forged
a key from curiosity and devotion, tied it
‘round your neck with fishing line, but still
you knock first, let me open the door.
I welcome you in with a checkerboard grin.
Read More »
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