June 2026
Volume 9, Issue 3
In this issue
Editorial
The Zoom of a Hornet: Writers in the Shadow of War
In Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid, Virginia Woolf notes, without ornament, that German aircraft passed over her house ‘last night and the night before…
By Prof. Izabela Morska (University of Gdańsk)
Poetry
Bernabò Visconti to Two Delegates of Abbot Grimoard
When served his papers of excommunication, Visconti held the messengers hostage and / forced them to eat the parchment, silk cord and all. / Yes, every…
By Daniel Galef
Poetry
Meduna to Ezzelin
Meduna, the Countess of Ravenna, to Her Husband Ezzelin Surnamed Braccioferro, Who / Is Absent in the Holy Land on the Second Crusade (after a painting by…
By Daniel Galef
Poetry
The Voice of Laodamia to Anticlus
(Helen in the Voices of the Wives of the Greek Soldiers Calling into the Trojan Horse) / Are you not tired of tricks?
By Daniel Galef
Poetry
Antonio’s Studio
The canvases are stained with gin so the / women draped in black look as though / they are standing among rain puddles / and the constellations above them…
By Alex LeGrys
Poetry
A Love Letter with an Expiration Date
A coffee-stained notebook, three razor blades, / and a hair brush remain on the swivel chair while / the desk is covered in dishes threatening mold at any…
By Alex LeGrys
Poetry
The Wounded Thigh
From the sewn thigh came the maenads, / Their quarrelsome spirit an irrefutable testament of their– / Purblind pledge for uplifting the twice-born God /…
Poetry
A Still Life of the Feather of Maat and an Arrhythmic Heart
Themis has arranged her vanity, / With self-deprecation galore, / She assembles her menagerie of remembrances, / The iconography of her better years /…
Poetry
Further On
Scrub me past guilt, past daddy-boy music, that nonsense noise / which is dedicated to street after street, East Roseville Parkway to I-80 / high!
By Yuna Kang
Poetry
An Undersea Jellyfish
outside the porthole, / when they turn down the cabin / to footpath emergency / lights, then – there is dublin, / a smear on the landscape, / spread out…
By DS Maolalai
Poetry
Almost went back to Ibiza
Balearic Islands only a short flight or / ferry ride from Barcelona and I am here / to walk along The Ramblas, to visit Gaudi / and, if time permits, Miro.
By Allan Lake
Poetry
The Sizzle of Moving Day
A television station signing off / becomes very friendly about its power / as if to say, “All joyful day / we have been destroying / air around us.” /…
Poetry
Finding New Invective to Inhabit
Ugh, these inexhaustibly / sunny days— / the brain inside the skull / the final thing, / unapprisable marrow in bone. / I suppose I should be happy / but…
Fiction
Showers
The clinking of the cheap saucer on the marble brought Alberto back to the serene pace of the old café, the aroma of ground beans, and the patina of time…
Poetry
Mon Ami
For the first time since I married you, / I want to speak the language of the spirit; / I want to say the things I had swallowed / that made my body…
Poetry
The Debate
Unveiling of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge Memorial Statue vs The Accompanying Sermon, / st / Ottery St Mary Parish Church ~ 21 October 2022 / The rain came…
Poetry
At the Risk of Causing an Earthquake in the Status Quo
Use your inside voice / We don’t shout down these hallways / Take off your shoes and tip-toe / Whisper or don’t say anything at all / Silence keeps the…
Flash
I’m here (2)
The four billion of my childhood have nearly doubled and I’m one of them—me, who was not meant to be.
Flash
in this world (10)
The Cotentin geology reflects that of Cornwall, except for the sand planted with slanting pillboxes — leftovers no one’s bothered with: even the sea only…
Poetry
We Who Learned the Language of Tides
We were born in crossings. / In the dark hold of a history / that refuses to stay buried, / our forbears learned / how to breathe between waves. / The sea…
Poetry
Ant-hill lessons
Crawling things flee before the towering / Toddler with curious hands. / He digs through dirt without fear, even / When pain sears his fingers / By the…
By Jack Love
Poetry
In Places Where There Isn’t
In places where there’s not a buzzing bee, / that houses artificial sweeteners tweaked, / I leave immediately, head to lavender, / rosemary bushes…
Poetry
Equinoctial Alignment at Mnajdra: A Choreography of Recurrence
At Mnajdra the light is not welcomed; / It is invited.
By Tanja Cilia
Poetry
Penthouse or The Joke of All Time
They told me to be quiet / And they told me to be candy / To smile and be sugared / And they told me I was beautiful / They told / That’s how they taught…
By k.d.zwierz
Poetry
mothers
I see her now, wearing her past like a cloak / stitched of secret shames, / fastened with hairspray and dusty perfume. / She cooked and laughed and never…
By k.d.zwierz
Poetry
Lombardy Poplar
Exalt / every branch raised / around each bough unbowed. / The feather of you visible / winter-lit from angel’s wing now rooted / quill, reaching all arms…
Poetry
Waking my 11-year-old at 2 am
He hits me flat-handed / and he’s not even awake to apologize. / He hits me when the lancet hits / his finger, before I get the jewel / of blood onto the…
Poetry
Father // Son
“It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Frederick Douglas / He’d drive a ten-penny straight / into the two-by-four / with one…
By Rufus Wright
Flash
We are given each...
We are given each a piece of white construction paper and a box of crayons to share.
Flash
Stumbling in after a late night...
Stumbling in after a late night, I discover an old woman in my bed.
Fiction
Barbers & Booze
Someone from the British consulate popped by, an earnest youngster in wire-rimmed glasses and a snug suit.
By Rob Leone
Poetry
I get a Deeper lifestyle here
On a sun-fried morning in Lagos Island, / where danfos cough carbon dioxide into the blue sky / and the air smells of pepper soup and hot rice, / the…
