I sink my teeth into the skin of an orange child blossoming from the furtive beginnings of youth, hissing as ocherous juice spurts into my eyes, a vengeance siphoned from the soft muscle I pulled apart. In that moment of blindness, I can see Spring looming over my seated form, spouting nonsense about the child […]
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Featured Artwork: ‘Hand Studies Charcoal’ by Matt Mozgiel is meticulous lithe fingers cupping my cheeks toned from a thousand hours in latex gloves quivering with concentration and intent working tirelessly to come home to his daughter who’d barrel into his fatigued arms and the exhaustion would evaporate is gentle a sleeve darkened with a […]
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Featured Artwork: ‘Anxiety’ by aaakeith Trigger Warning: Eating Disorders . . . Catherine comes over the night before Thanksgiving with her mother She was my first best friend my unofficial older sister the girl I wanted to be when I grew up I was six She was nine We had just read […]
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Featured Image: Scroll.in They traveled far, Over vast oceans Nestled at the bottom belly Of oversized ships in undersized cavities They were the first To settle on foreign lands With golden sands On lush plantations Promises of wealth Promises of freedom Promises of a free man From coolie belles To girmits Our […]
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My father, vivacious— a mouth full of leaves and amrut, splurting and gushing between the crooks in his teeth, a call to the boy who punched him square in the face in a brawl on the streets of Gujranwala, the nuts he cracked while playing cards, while dealing empty cigarette boxes, a love song played […]
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Featured Illustration: Rocío Montoya Mirrors bleed a blinding white, light fractured over fractured features. Wrapped across my body, I see white ribbon dyed into splotchy carmine, crisscrossing into makeshift thigh highs and babydoll lingerie. The slope of a neck and the fat of baby cheeks— curves are a tantalizing blessing, the Lord’s gift for lecherous […]
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Featured Illustration: Upasana Agarwal I used to feel Uncomfortable In my own skin My dark brown hue And even my kin I longed to be white A product of systematic racism I longed to feel accepted But instead was locked in a prison Of my mind Of my culture Feeling Less […]
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Inside the rusted locket Lies the old burnt image From a time I can no longer see Of someone long lost But the more and more I look Over the eyes that still have their shine And trace the details of their face The more I get confused Were all of the late-night calls And […]
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Featured Image: A still from the movie ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ (2013) Henry cracked his knuckles and took a huge swig out of the ornate goblet on his desk. His laptop screen cast a blue tint over his languid pallor as he rubbed his eyes, and the red tinge they began to take on contrasted […]
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