ISSUE 1: SPIRAL
November 2021
CIVIL WAR
​
THE TAXIDERMY ON THE SHELF
​
ITS EMPTY, ROTTED, WITHERED SELF
​
YOUR AUNTIE DIED WITHOUT A WILL
​
YOUR BROTHER STEALS HER OLD PAIN PILLS
​
YOU JOIN THE FOURTH ARMY RESERVE
​
THE COUNTRY THAT YOU WON’T PRESERVE
​
YOUR BOYFRIEND SMELLS LIKE HER PERFUME
SO YOU DESTROY HIS LIVING ROOM
​
YOUR MOTHER HAS HER THIRD DIVORCE
​
YOU FILL THE DAYS WITH INTERCOURSE
​
LIFE SEEMS DULL AND NOT WORTH SHARING-
​
NOTHING STOPS YOUR SOUL FROM CARING.
​
- J.C.
THE DEMYSTIFICATION OF A KISS
Subtitle
My forgotten names which he utters
in silence of our overexcited feathers
My fluid gaze that drips
down the red damp softness beneath
his thin film of a human skin
He touches the mirror with a fistful of soil, rain, reeking grinded death
What fell between his fingers touched my lips: last night
A kiss with a fist is better than none
We hid it here:
Our beast growls in incarceration
Our very own hideous faceless love feast of petrification by our shadows
We hid it well, ending a crisis right with another hunger reunites again
I found in her stone debris another temptation for breakage Now, we let the leash loose
​
- emma fan
I FEEL SO VULNERABLE
NO LOCK TO THE CAGE
IM SHITTING ON STAGE
BUT THIS DOOR ISNT UNRECOVERABLE AUDIENCE STARE AT MY
SWIRLING RESOLVE
DUELS OF SIGHT
LEAVE YOU SHITLESS
​
-ethan plunkett
BACK TO THE OLD DORM
Sometimes in your life, you accidentally cry to a Smiths song
You say goodbye to your friends at dinner and walk all the way across campus It's on your "To Listen" playlist and you're fine listening to the first half
But as soon as that door opens, something falls into place
So you wail as you take off your Docs, hang up your lanyard on the door, and collapse on the floor, gripping your fake carpet shag, sobbing at your own stupidity and frailness of your heart
​
- Harper Eggington
THE DEMYSTIFICATION OF A KISS
My forgotten names which he utters
in silence of our overexcited feathers
My fluid gaze that drips
down the red damp softness beneath
his thin film of a human skin
He touches the mirror with a fistful of soil, rain, reeking grinded death
What fell between his fingers touched my lips: last night
A kiss with a fist is better than none
We hid it here:
Our beast growls in incarceration
Our very own hideous faceless love feast of petrification by our shadows
We hid it well, ending a crisis right with another hunger reunites again
I found in her stone debris another temptation for breakage Now, we let the leash loose
​
- emma fan
SPIRAL SOUL AND TWISTING BONES
the coyote stands outside my door and sings a song of blood and bones he offers up his gristle and marrow
but i can’t bear to take it.
he whimpers, once, and disappears into the darkness of the canyon.
in his place, lies a single drop of blood. scarlet, bright, illuminated by the half moon.
​
- nica kinser