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Henry, This Is What You Wanted
By Matthew Brothers Henry Bemis, this is what you wanted, “time enough at last.” Before, you were mocked. At your work, they scoffed. Bank teller, bookworm. Sad to say they don’t go together well. Reading on the job, your boss’ head throbs. Engrossed in the book, you convey the plot to the customer. She’s not pleased when she’s shortchanged, Henry, please. Your wife asks you to read her A poem. Then you see She’s blacked out the words. On your break, you go to the bank’s back vault. This place is perfect for reading in peace. Your stress is released. While reading, you cross into a land of “shadow and…
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In This World
By Kendra Tischer When I look into her eyes I see many worlds where I am with her but I also see an impossible world where I could not love her because there was once upon a time in this landscape of universes I could not love her the way she deserves. When I look into her eyes in this world and in all possible worlds where she exists I will choose her over and over again because the dimensions of my love scatter throughout the multiverse as she is my theory of everything.
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The Multiverse
By Jack Dolinger What if on Earth 32,the Pangea never broke apart?Is it still divided into countriesor is it one singular country? What if on Earth 56,there actually is a star wars?Would it be war against humans and aliens?Or aliens against other aliens? What if on Earth 82,Donald Trump is a DJ?Does he claim that hisequipment is rigged after a bad gig? What if on Earth 498,The Avengers are real people?Maybe the movies we haveare actually documentaries. What if on Earth 603,man never evolved beyond the cave?Maybe that Earth is in a healthier condition. What if on Earth 952,Jack Dolinger isn’t even my name?If I had my pick, I’d be…
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Can’t Be Spoken
By Emilee Friend “I love you”The words get heaver as I age;A weight in my chest.They stick to my tongue.Their taste foreign,meant for everyone else.But I’m a hoarder.I can’tI won’tPart with them so willingly. “I love you”My aversion isn’t noble.I’m not saving this for ‘the one’This is fearOf knowing what love isOf accepting its existenceOf realizing I might not fit the moldI know I can’t,I won’tGive them this. “I love you”I can write the wordsIn sloppy penmanship.They stare ate me from on the page,But my mouth can’t form the sounds,Haven’t been able to in years.I hate this.
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To Myself, Age Eight
By Jacob Hetrick A kid’s brain is a demented thing filled with slime and gunk and G.I. Joe, grasshopper legs and dog slobber and sawdust, Pokémon and Inuyasha and PlayStation, a fragmented mirror that reflects in miniature a thousand facets of family, of given love and learned hate, and in between the cracks in the glass you can see the backboard of the person to be. My home was a hollow conch that echoed with screams instead of waves and when I crawled off the bus, I found that that the screams followed, echoing inside my head until they shot like vomit from my mouth, ripping apart everything in their…
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Easy Listening
By Jack Dolinger How can you not light up a smilewhen Tony Bennett’s voice bursts out in your ears? You can’t help but nod your headto the beat of James Brown’s funky rhythm. The stress of homework turns into meditationwith Floyd Cramer’s soothing piano. You could drop into a deep sleepwhen Frank Sinatra wishes you a Merry Christmas. You’ll crave acoustics over foodafter hearing Hozier strum away. You want something slow but relatable?Never underestimate Lady Gaga. All these people can pull you to the dance floor.All of them can settle you with a chill groove.
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Galactic Waters
By Matthew Brothers Resting against the backdrop of pinpointed light, the nebulous cloud like stretched sea smoke. There are no waves in the black, yet the sea and space share vastness, one much greater than the other. The snowball nebula rests in the cold void, it’s the opposite of snowball earth, it’s beautiful. Well, snowball earth is beautiful, from the outside at least. It floats on a sea holding black matter and cosmic clams. How can the sea and space have a connection? The milky seas send up their light for the satellites to see, and that is all the connection they need. Take this fact from me and you…
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Pushing Past the Past
By Kim Cardello These feelings of dread, sorrow so overwhelming it’s hard not to cry. You cast me aside carelessly I fold myself inward like the waves we watched once, freely hand in hand Moving forward is hard there is too much pushing and pulling, my emotions taking me back but my heart nudging me forward. One day it’ll be easier, treading on the water; this boundary, keeping me from drowning, sweeping me to solid ground where I can bask in the sun again without remembering you.
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The Red Wheelbarrow
By Andrew Jones so much depended upon that red wheel barrow you pushed across dirt, leaving a dusty trail across our barren backyard, no rain to glaze; just two small kids playing in the clay, mom roasting a chicken.
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Elephants
By Melina Bowser After death, Is there Heaven? Hell? Nothing? The unnerving question Hidden away in a darkened room inside my mind A place I never visit in the day Yet, I can’t seem to escape it at night When my heavy eyelids finally surrender to the exhaustion I run to shut the door Lock it up before it slowly seeps out I make it just in time I’ve suppressed the hunger for answers Never wanting to let myself wander A place I’d only imagine to be daunting But one can only fast for so long On a warm evening A few months after he left us I allowed myself…
