Tim Loperfido
Tim Loperfido NORTHBOUND TRAIN TO PENN STATION, 2001 New Jersey transit into the city is always busy on Christmas, but just enough seats remain empty on the train so that no one has to stand. Kristin and…
Richard Paik
Richard Paik MOST DIFFICULT On the first Friday in December, Alan distributed the poetry unit handout to his Senior Honors English class. Each student must select a poem. In making your selection, you need not limit yourself…
Kirby Wright
Kirby Wright BOULDER BLUES We sat near the continental air access tunnel. My father wore a Lilly Daché button-up, khaki pants, and blue joggers. Daddyo was upset that my mother and Jen were visiting the airport gift shop. He…
William Roebuck
William Roebuck SCALING MOUNT WHITMAN: LEAVES OF GRASS AND AMERICA’S FIRST GREAT ‘AWOKENING’ Cards on the table. I’m not a Whitman scholar. Put me down, I guess, as a plain old reader who likes literature. As I’ve gotten…
Deborah Copperud
Deborah Copperud MVMOMS On my last trip to the Washburn branch of the Hennepin County Library as a volunteer book reviewer, I elbow the automatic door opener. I am oblivious that, before my next visit, I will resign my…
Notes on Issue 75
Albert Kapikian Editor's Note NOTES ON ISSUE 75 A community college is a commons tasked with the search for the common interest. Montgomery College, through its literary journal, has been tasked also with the search for another kind of…
Mark Doyle
Mark Doyle THE CONSOLATIONS OF WATERLOO SUNSETS This is a song about finding yourself alone and being okay with that. This is a song about finding hope in endings. [0:00 descending bassline] One night in Washington, DC, my…
Kale Hensley
Kale Hensley I RECKON WITH MY FEET The first time a girl witnesses her toes in the mouth of another, she would not have anticipated it happening during a game at church. It is complicated. I use that word in…
Mea Andrews/I’m Sorry
Mea Andrews I’M SORRY My husband asks if this is my first time seeing this and it feels odd to reassure him that it is not, I have seen my mother beaten and naked, I have seen my father hit…
Samodh Porawagamage / All the Salty Sand in Our Mouths
by Samodh Porawagamage Excerpts from All the Salty Sand in Our Mouths TO COUSIN G. We’ve all grown up and you are nowhere close to schooling, so late that, even I, the youngest of the lot, know…