ISSUE THREE, SUMMER 2010

FICTION

FEAR OF WATERby Patrick Scott Vickers
I’m teaching Melissa how to fight, how to argue. This is an essential skill, and I teach her to not let herself get emotionally involved. We practice on the old arguments my wife and I had.

FOR YOU TO GOandTHERE’S A FALSE GUNby Joe Hall
We found ourselves at the peninsula’s storm-tossed end/Clouds of starving priests descending on the field

EXPLANATIONandSCHOOLBOYS by Josh Kalscheur
It will take a good fight to bring her back/and the chief there orders his men to call/her in with conch shells, even if it means love

BUILDINGby Erin Lewenauer
My hand is on the door/In the dark/You say/It’s a movie/So you can’t go back

JELLYFISH; LAST SUNDAY, IN WINTER, A PHONY GESTURE; andWHEN YOUR HEART IS ABOUT TO STOPby Caren Scott
Before a thunderstorm,/when colors are severe, tilt your umbrella/and let the first drops hit your hair. So as not/to appear small, put on all your winter coats.

DICTATIONSby Molly Prentiss
We eat luxury sandwiches and mash up the bread with our molars. When we return to the city, the Germans are making sounds with their throats, crooning at each others nightgowns.

CLEANby Melinda M. White
She dusted the stories of how they met and fell in love, moving them to get underneath when she needed to.