Disintegration May 2023
Artifacts by Cindy Schneider
Artifacts by Cindy SchneiderShe picks up the cup. There is only one. One plate. One fork. The plate spreads out in shards across the cabin floor, knocked off and licked clean by animals. A brown stain makes a perfect circle around the smooth inside of the mug,...
Bad News by Sophie Campbell
Bad News by Sophie CampbellLast night, I woke up to the sound of a woman crying. I clambered out of bed and opened my window. The black sky pressed down over the cascading houses down the hill; winter stars and clouds sifted over telephone cables. And the screaming...
Barely Keeping Abreast by Meredith Wadley
Barely Keeping Abreastby Meredith WadleyI’ve invited friends over to swim in the Rhine. “Join us,” I say to my brother. He’s not a confident swimmer. When it’s just the two of us, Daniel takes an inflatable, a giant Toblerone bar, Fairtrade banana, or a Swiss...
Do you know what blows? by Allen Lum
Do you know what blows?by Allen LumDo you know what blows? When I step foot into a home, but see not a home, but a shelter, a dwelling that was made through the exchange of a rent check, and not of a tender caress.Allen Lum is a transportation planner but...
Heat Waves by T.L. Tomljanovic
Heat Wavesby T.L. TomljanovicClothes Saran-wrap our skin and ceiling fans only rotate convection oven air so three dozen limbs pile into the car and we head to the mall. Icy air blasts away sweat, and our lungs breathe a collective sigh of relief. The food court is...
Rust Storm – Cycle Soup – Psycho-Comic by Jeff S. Mann
Rust Storm - Cycle Soup - Psycho-Comic by Jeff S. MannRust StormPsycho-ComicCycle Soup Artist statement While a resident artist at a college in 2005, Jeff discovered car parts which are mass-produced with incredible variety and built-in complexity, and they have since...
My flowers are dying by Therese Temitayo
My flowers are dyingby Therese TemitayoMy flowers are dying. I know that they’re dying because I’m watching them die. They were dying three days ago when I first sat down on the couch, petals tilted low like the last peel on a banana. They were dying two days ago...
Odd Mammal Out by Jessica Klimesh
Odd Mammal Outby Jessica KlimeshShe tells me it’s not a problem, the roughness of my skin. “It’s new,” I say. “I like it,” she says, stroking my cheek, caressing my arm. “It’s nice.” For our first Valentine’s Day, though, she gets me Aveeno, says, “I hope you don’t...
Postnuclear Future by Janis Butler Holm
Postnuclear Future by Janis Butler HolmPostnuclear Future 1Postnuclear Future 2Postnuclear Future 3Artist statement The "Postnuclear Future" series, a set of digitally blended images, was composed with Putin's threats to the West in mind. His actual destruction in the...
Scaly Things by Carla Sarett
Scaly Thingsby Carla Sarett(fragment of a letter to the artist Thomas Gainsborough from his daughter) Dear Father, I’ve painted my most flamboyant clouds yet. Monstrous thunder clouds, the rotting stump of a birch, a pale-blue hermit’s castle. Later, I’ll add a...
The Fourth of July by Lara Frankena
The Fourth of Julyby Lara Frankena The passengers are, as ever, excitable after the fireworks, so I lose myself in a book. When people pile up by the door between subway cars and one enterprising man tries to shoulder out its window, I look up. Why are they...
Watch your body melt away by Joyce Bingham
Watch your body melt awayby Joyce BinghamTake a smidgen of our seaweed extract – allow your body to fast track into weight loss, you’ll never do without it. A few crystals, costing a fortune, dissolve on my tongue in a salty tang. My salivary glands erupt and I drool...
Why You Should Not Date a Chef by Liz Green
Why You Should Not Date a Chef by Liz GreenHe tells you there are so many words for love in Arabic, yet he says none of them to you. The last time you fucked, looking up at your face he whispered You are so beautiful. Among a serpentine lace of live-oak branches,...
