Gifts Keith Rosson The conflict shrinks ever inward, and summer, finally, brings skirmishes that ring the city. Rumors abound: rations will be lessened, insurgents’ boots can be felt in the ground like an approaching train, they’ve turned our incantations against us. There will be a curfew, evacuations. At night the sound of far-off mortars drifts…

Naked Felonies G. K. Wuori What Might Be Learned in Sewing Class Melinda and Belinda learned it all in sewing class, an unpopular class to be sure with so many students opting instead for electives like Paleontology, Gay Politicians, or Website Design; indeed, only two other students had signed up that semester—two special ed boys…

La Vida No Vale Nada Michael McGuire Friends since any of them could remember. They had their table at the café. Their hour. The hour that came when each ceased to pursue that which he had since before sunrise and would again until after dark. Each had set something in motion which, experience had taught,…

Love Letters to Vegas Sofía Margarita López Part I: Nevada From the bed of the truck where you and I sat, we saw the eyeballs roll across first. Except, from far away they didn’t look like eyeballs at all; they looked like golf balls surfing through the Nevada desert. “What’s that?” you asked, biting into…

Salome and Circe Jane Flett 1. Salome is leaden with routine. She drags a washcloth across the sticky kitchen counter and feels her arm snag. Another day has unfolded between these four walls, walls which never seem to crack or crumble, never swoon back into the soil, leaving the house—and her—agape. Salome doesn’t know what…