The Commons

fractured growth

by Brigid McCarthy

the covers breathed fire, that night, the one where my eyes didn’t close at all;
maybe sleep, an unwelcome friend, was hiding in the bathroom.
painted pink toes against dirty tile, i
stepped
in front of the looking glass as a purple thing stared back.
i spat at her feet in di… Read more

I’m Positively Presentable

by Melody Lin

They say the more put together you are,
The smoother the jacket,
The straighter the tie,
The more they’ll want you.

Looking in the mirror,
Seeing how that smile fits you,
Then frowning to see what truth looks like,
Is a routine you remember well...

Before walking through that door
Con… Read more

Excellence

by Michael LaRocca

“Settle for nothing less than perfection,” my father always said. I listened. Every single day, working for his standards, and not my own. To the point of living a lie. I was anything but what he wanted. Darkness cast upon me. What he saw as the blooming flowers of success, I s… Read more

April Showers

by Charlotte Frick

The rain falls like tears
from the eyes of a person
whose head has been clouded
with emotions for
too long.

One little drop
broke the dam
and now everything is
flooded.

Hot salty tears
roll down their face
washing away all of
their armor.

The armor that has kept them
safe
… Read more

Untitled Carr

by Erin Carr

falling was a good word for it too
a good word for him
because when he would enter that state
it was never a gradual descent
it wasn’t a slow change
from one form of being to another it was quick
hurtful and
sordid.
it would happen at noon
at work
and on the car ride home when he swo… Read more

The Turtle Pond

by Adele Bender

It was 1931 in the days when times were simpler; when the world was black and white. When the rush of the Roanoke could be heard from your North Carolina and beyond. When you’d look outside your window at rising dawn and see that plum Plymouth coupe from next door shakily scamper by… Read more

Three-Fourths of a Color Wheel

by Jacynth Apora

“I drive fast, I am alone at midnight”
...
“I just ride, I just ride”
...

          I got toothpaste stains on a blue sweatshirt still warm from a dryer—I’m trying to start again—You can identify someone by teeth in a fire—I’m trying to start again—Blood on a white coffee mug—I’m … Read more