My school bus was Lord of the Flies on wheels, and I was Piggy. Nighttime tears shed the residue of that day’s humiliations. My parents’ variegated forms of “Children are cruel” landed as corroboration rather than sympathy. Their concern quickly sewed into ennui hemmed with
“You are at the age of reason,” Sister said, “ready to understand the mystery of transubstantiation.” She cued them with her ruler. “Tran-sub-stan-ti-a-tion,” the children repeated. Angie spoke it softly, enjoying the roominess of the word, its multiple, mysterious syllables that would teach her how
The goal, someone told me, is to make each day different than the one before. So I heeded the advice and added to my routine that summer half a joint every morning and about a hundred butterscotch candies. For maybe seven months my teeth stung
To whom it may concern: I write to recommend Mr. Anthony Mills, an enterprising young man who served our company last summer as an intern in the Accounting Department. As the vice president in charge of said department, I supervised Mr. Mills in his duties
Ponca wasn’t saved. The thought sat like a weight on my chest. Grandma didn’t attend church either, but Mom insisted her mother believed; Ponca, my grandpa, was another story. He was a wayward soul – someone we prayed for earnestly as if faith was something
There was a house at the bottom of a hill by the shore. It was coated in a clotted-cream-colored siding perpetually speckled with dirt. A sturdy oak sat in the back yard, centered between the off-white vinyl fence and a deck only big enough to
Tesia’s eyes were like a fly, bold and alert from the expression on my face. I had never heard my mom cry before. She was a strong woman, sometimes scary, and she commanded the house without question. So, as I sat across from Tesia silent
______________________________________________ Theodore Zachary Cotler’s most recent books are Supplice and Ghost at the Loom. His awards include the Colorado Prize and the Ruth Lilly Fellowship. He’s a founding editor of The Winter Anthology at www.winteranthology.com. Cotler will direct Shipwreck on a Hillside, a feature-length drama
______________________________________________ Kara Kai Wang is a second year poetry candidate at University of Oregon.
______________________________________________ Tim McLafferty lives in NYC and works as a drummer. His poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Painted Bride Quarterly, Pearl, Portland Review and elsewhere. He is the poetry editor at Forge Journal. timmclafferty.com