Deep, Azure Blue

Deep, Azure Blue

Nonfiction by Kirk Fjelstad  Michigan state police cars are beautiful shade of deep, azure blue, blocked every entrance to Meijer except the one on Tienken Road. We watched through the window glass but couldn’t hear the sirens. Mom said to take pictures.  The first...
Portraits of My God

Portraits of My God

Poetry by Minha Choi  My God is a carton of soybean milk and senbei rice crackers on a Sunday. Sometimes he was a rainbow rice cake, sometimes he was an apple juice box, and sometimes he was seeing my parents after 12 p.m. on Sundays, our family stopping at the famous...
Fluency

Fluency

Poetry by Rukan Saif The second time I visited Dhaka, I threw up in the car.   Now, I remember this as exorcising the American.   At nine years old, I dislodged English from my throat,   Left it to waste away in a polythene bag.   What crawled in its stead was sticky...
Jazz Funeral

Jazz Funeral

Nonfiction by Nathan Thomas The Preservation Jazz Hall is smaller than what I expected. It’s sandwiched between two brick buildings in the French Quarter. A kid with an orange t-shirt and an overbite scans our tickets and we’re off—down a narrow hallway towards a room...
Period Song

Period Song

Poetry by Nora Cornell Monthly, I sing to the Lord: does it have to be so painful? Reminders of my own youth  and potential,            flushed violently  through         my most intimate self.                  I never know  or hate myself more             than when...