The Frame of a Couch Is Not a Couch by Karen Skolfield
“The Frame of a Couch Is Not a Couch” by Karen Skolfield The bricked-up fireplace doesn’t even pretend. We could start a fire on the hearth, but then what? In front of the Hotel Lewis and Clark, the Walk sign’s stopped working. For ten years I haven’t seen my father. Every public building has an exit plan. He forwards emails: “The Grandmother of All Blond Jokes.” Heidegger said we must abandon logic to...
Sexy Barbie Rapunzel by Deb Jannerson
“Sexy Barbie Rapunzel” by Deb Jannerson you yell blissfully unbound from the what-do-they-think of female education. your dime-dozen hoots poke me into the ground like a nail with phantom pounds from conviction of the skeleton key in your pants. another tiny weight between my shoulder blades, a further contortion in my wavy spine a brother scar of night terrors and feeble days without sun. you cast me as...
Ghazal for Emilie Parker by Carolyne Wright
“Ghazal for Emilie Parker” by Carolyne Wright (Newtown, Connecticut: December 14, 2012) He had been teaching her to speak Portuguese So their last words together were in Portuguese. Such simple words that morning: Thank you. Please. I love you, Daddy. All in Portuguese. Then he rode off to work, past winter...
Blood Moon by Elizabeth Jacobson
“Blood Moon” by Elizabeth Jacobson echoes of a hate crime People are made of paper, love affairs, anything that...
How to Get Inside of a Ship That Won’t Let You In by Debbie Urbanski
“How to Get Inside of a Ship That Won’t Let You In” by Debbie Urbanski Everyone had assumed the blues came here for some pressing reason. That’s why the scientists wasted days with them in those tiny rooms. “Where. Is. Home. You? You? Home?” the scientists repeated into their microphones, their smart faces peering out from the helmets of their hazmat suits. When a blue finally pointed to a map pinned to...
Backblast Area Clear by Karen Skolfield
“Backblast Area Clear” by Karen Skolfield “I shot one of those,” I say to Dennis, pointing at the screen. It’s a light anti-tank weapon, a LAW, long fiberglass tube, next to weightless. I was 17 when I picked it up, drill sergeant beside me on the firing line, an instructor guiding this gigantic straw onto my shoulder. Even the small-size uniform looked ridiculous on me. So I have the LAW on my shoulder and...
Nocturne by Charlotte Muse
“Nocturne” by Charlotte Muse Into the always mysterious air, place of breath and wings, the moon is rising It reveals by its milky light a dull gleam of wakeful eyes The teeth of marauders Outlines of mountains and trees– enough to reassure A path to itself, straight across the water and then up Where the owl’s nest is, and its comings and goings How the owl is its own shadow and its shadow’s shadow An...
No Radio by Sokunthary Svay
“No Radio” by Sokunthary Svay i. Sinn Sisamouth, Khmer poster boy resonating tenor of every residence off rooftops on radios a voice that chilled and warmed Beloved, iconic face decapitated pasted over bodies in posters ii. My father is lost at Gun Hill Road in the Bronx. A voice interrupts my daze sprays 60’s...
L’Orange by Page Lambert
“L’Orange” by Page Lambert I’m having a pedicure at Ivy’s Nails and Spa. The shop owner is Vietnamese. Her seven sisters and one brother work here too. The shop is immaculate. Ivy and I talk about her homeland while she files my toenails. When her father, a prosperous businessman, lost everything, he was given $200 to start a new life...
The Late Afternoon Crashed All Around by Karin Cecile Davidson
“The Late Afternoon Crashed All Around” by Karin Cecile Davidson Excerpt from “The Late Afternoon Light Crashed All Around” – first published in Iron Horse Literary Review, Father’s Day Issue, June 2011 My daddy, Charles Royal Blackwood, III, was ranked a Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, his uniform sleeve decorated with three chevrons and a pair of crossed rifles. Mama had long since dubbed him Royal...
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The Deepest Place Jul 26, 2025
