In darkness, before birdsong, before even brightening, Old Lady would rise, and we peersons rose with her. From sleeping space in kitchen walls, we’d hear her slippered footfalls, feel blooming warmth as wood cookstove kindled beneath practiced hands. Soon, stove would crackle and sweet porridge smells waft through walls, rumbling our tiny tummies.Always, Old Lady […]
The class flyer was tacked on the rec center bulletin board among others advertising hot yoga, kiddies gymnastics, and beginner macramé:Four weekends to learn how to exercise demons, spirits, and malevolent entities from people, places, and objects. Results guaranteed.I wasn’t prone to mystical or religious practices, but it seemed a sufficient solution to my sleep […]
Everyone hates it when the alien shows up at the club. Everyone hates it when the ten-foot-tall bright-green-and-yellow alien (the one with all the tentacles (the one that smells like ass (the one who’s covered in glitter))) shows up at the club (and on Drag Race Night, no less). At least, we certainly do.For, when […]
Need, I decided, tasted of honey and salt. I didn’t like it. Still, I knew to test the tincture before paying for it and so I touched a single drop to my lips. The cloying sweetness clung to my tongue, and I shuddered. Even that droplet opened a craving in me, a well that begged […]
You leave while it is still dark. Your lover sleeps on his stomach, the sheet draped only to his waist.You don’t want to go. You want to slide back into bed and listen to him breathing. And for him to make you coffee later, dark and sweet.But you’ve never let anyone haunt you. And you’re […]
So Fizzy says, he says to me, “I bet you can’t get your hands on some prismatic comet dust.”And I says, “Really? You’re sayin’ that to me?”And like I know he’s baiting me, because yeah, he’s right, ain’t nobody touching a prismatic comet, least not me, like people die tryin’ that shit, but you know, […]
This issue is intended to bring some humor and tenderness to the middle of winter. I think we might need it. I know I do personally. It was a struggle to write last month, let alone write this intro. My soul felt like a nail-encrusted baseball bat that kept beating back the spirit-crushers of the […]