I touched raw fingers to the strings. Felt how gasping for air after being hooked, feels. I’m so long out of water. Somewhere in the background Momma is warning, Do not touch… pero, it’s so shiny, so shiny.
Read moreVagabond City Interviews Featured Artist Jaexhin
We were scrolling through Instagram one afternoon and being distracted from everything we’re supposed to do as ~millennials~ in the workforce—and then we came across Jaexhin. The first thing that grabbed us about Jaexhin’s work was the color. It was bold, color blocked at times, and the lines were sharp, with shadows creating major play […]
Read moreSIX WORDS AT THE OLD LOCK AND DAM NO. 27 by ELIZABETH A. DAVIDSON
(I sit on the edge of a bench facing an overgrown field that has been infiltrated by daylilies. Orange heads bobbing above tall weeds and lush grass. Cleverly disguised snipers waiting in trenches. They call them the Ditch Lilly. An old man sits on the bench next to me. Nods his head. Crosses his legs. […]
Read moreNO MANUAL FOR THE QUEER GIRL by DORA LEVY
my dear [ ], a.c. said that fragments are good things to inhabit, so i love you?/ i don’t know what this feeling is, because the last time i had a crush, i wrote songs for someone else in a way of disguising who it was for. (my first published work is really for you.) […]
Read moreTHE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH by ALLIE LONG
When you run your hands across my hips, I suddenly forget it is not a sin to have a body. Each point of contact turns my white skin dingy – something like a tea stain.
Read moreGATHER AROUND OBSESSION by JESSIE JANESHEK
the wooden bridge stretching over black cacti. Remember calves breaking as fast as you can. What do you tell your body paraded? That you’re not satisfied until you’re sick in the dark
Read moreGAS STATION ENTOMOLOGY FOR A DRAGON FLY by EVANA KAELYN BODIKER
Off Interstate-77, she lies on the pavement: belly up, bulging eyes to the exhaust-filled, periwinkle evening sky. This is her deathbed, a ground covered in a ROYGBIV of gum, pressed permanently into the sidewalk by the footfalls of kids on their way back to their magic carpets that take them safely to Disney World. These […]
Read morePICK ME UP by KAYLI SCHOLZ
These knees, will be the pick-me-up when you fall on them. Knees, that you fell upon, crabby and rude in your A,B,C baby swing. You marveled at your mother in her cocktail gown, the shape of her shoes out of your reach. You lay there like a splinter until she picked you up. On your knees, struggling to see. Hide-and-seek […]
Read moreQUESTION FOR A HUMAN by TERRY ABRAHAMS
how is it to carry a weight greater even than the ocean and still float
Read moreAURELIANO by KAYLA EASON
The snow melt tastes of last November’s silent lightening, the blue air of Sierras. This part of California sees a constellation’s thrusted
Read moreBURNING ANIMALS by ELIZABETH BREDER
Tied up in bedsheets, drooling kerosene— This slump is a slow burning fire. Death by boredom or starvation, or By the constriction of your own hands Around the sprig of your throat. Will you stumble, sleepwalking From the burning room or paint a portrait In ash on the mattress? I get up to put a […]
Read moreCRY WOLF by M. MILLER
judge, let it be known, it is so rare a girl cries wolf. the trial is so familiar, so familiar, so familiar (i am so tired) i could script it. ‘promising future’ and ‘boy of strong character’ and ‘first-time offence’. they report his swim times whilst she drowns
Read moreI WILL NOT BE RETURNING TO CHESTERFIELD MALL by ALLISON DARCY
No, I cannot go back there. It is June, and so, there will be no Christmas lights, or bows on the carousel. And it is late, so, it will be too crowded for me to hear the piano that reverberates on the white tile. That is what I think of: mornings before camp, when I […]
Read moreAFTER THE DOWNPOUR by ELIZABETH A. DAVIDSON
You knew it would be someone, it always is. Before you try and count the times the Ohio River has seeped into your neighbors houses. Before you hear the push brooms hit pavement with a resounding crack. You, standing inside your dry house, just out of floods reach, staring at origami swans hanging in the […]
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