When I think of fall, I remember warm, sugared donuts and fresh cider from a farm in Michigan. Fall brings a sense of renewal as my life remains rooted in the world of education. A new school year, a new beginning, and in that way Fall trades on the goodwill of Spring.
Issue Five
Front Matter
Staff
Tim Lepczyk: Publisher and Editor
Mark Barr: Fiction Editor
Ryan Bry: Editorial Assistant
Zoe Calhoun: Editorial Assistant
Taylor Foremon: Editorial Assistant
Daniel Grear: Editorial Assistant
Lindsay Lloyd: Editorial Assistant
Fiction
Driving with Sara
You see me standing by the tree. You ask me the time. I show you my watch, from my pocket. It doesn’t have a band anymore, but it shows the time.
The Exhibits
There are four in the car: Bridget and Jack, who have been cuddling in the backseat the whole way; Anita, who is driving; and Shane, her all-but-fiancé, who is navigating. Anita and Shane have been together so long that they don’t hold hands in public much anymore, or cuddle in backseats. And for the whole drive, they’ve been watching the other two snuggling in the rearview with smiles that are indulgent, if a little strained.
Poetry
Another Homeric Moment
With elliptical pulse in the sky,
seven AM announces
Dinner Cruise
She walks toward the stern
as if in ether, floating
For The Days
We grow inside houses, and remember each spring
how it seeped through the flooring –
bringing such thoughts, a cracking of dust –
Half-dreamt But Earnest
I was thinking the other day
About how the world ended.
March Clay
In your kitchen
I perch and starve
Pre-Cyber Bullying
We didn’t call it bullying back then,
and cyber was a word relegated to sci-fi
Preparatory Meditations
In this season
Of hollow October light,
The Barbarians Were Never at the Gates
They were always inside them—
often smiling like we liked to do
The Yard in Alma
Is X alive? Did Y pass away? Z
still run the stable? My grandmother
Trying To Get Comfortable
I disturb a vein of sand
Will the Singularity Be Televised?
I lie in bed
Engulfed in the buzz
Back Matter
Thank You
Thank you to our wonderful editorial assistants Ryan Bry, Zoe Calhoun, Taylor Foremon, Daniel Grear, and Lindsay Lloyd.