Melanie made a muffled groaning sound. She strained her arm against the strip of cotton wrapped multiple times around her wrist, a bit too tight. Morgan untied the one arm. She lifted it and tapped the silicone ball between her teeth. “Oh,” he said. “I see.” He tied her hand back down and took the ball gag out of her mouth. “Untie me please.” “All … Continue reading Janitor With Assorted Responsibilities by Fawn Parker

“My relationship with rich people follows a predictable curve,” I said to Robin. We sat on stools with hunched backs, looking at traffic through the translucent Tim Hortons logo on a large, clean window. We sipped that awful coffee. “At the beginning, the rich love me,” I said. “Wait, hang on.” I spun my head. I’d seen a telling motion peripherally. There were thumbs whirring … Continue reading The Comedian by Thomas Molander

insurrection i imagine the rouge rivers coming out of me to be drizzled on you really deeply love every single one of your draggings across splintery belows until my back bleeds the others do not see your craters, but the asymptote has followed and will follow you, forever approaching the truth a random walk through probabilities of past errors yielded ducks still sitting on roofs … Continue reading Three Poems by Nina Kamooei

He was late for his flight and his wife still wasn’t pregnant. They’d tried four times a week for the last two years, sometimes five. “Can we try before you leave?” she asked. “Look at the clock, already, Nance.” “It’s five minutes of your time.” After they finished, he put his suit back on, his watch, his socks, his shoes. He checked his teeth in … Continue reading We’re Flying, Right? by Brian Kelly

common across half the country in spring and summer. males less showy than females and smaller. front wings the big cat pattern, yellow dots in the bottoms’ black outline. stops its innately epileptic flight on a dead branch sticking out of the dam formed from garbage and organic matter at the breakwater that spans four fifths the creek’s total width. stays still and close enough … Continue reading {eastern tiger swallowtail} by Daniel Barnum