Prose
THE SPIDER, IN SIX PARTS
Riley Harrison i. The Funeral I own a watch, and I’ve worn it almost every day for the past year. A little while ago, I noticed it stopped working. The tiny hands were stuck at 11:47 P.M. on October 29th, 2022. When I registered the stillness, hours later, I cried. (You can laugh if you… Read More THE SPIDER, IN SIX PARTS
The Broken Machine Downstairs
Megumi Oishi The machine downstairs is broken. The clunks and sighs are coming from down there, up the steps, rolling out around our feet like silvery hot metal. I can tell you’re scared — I am too. I say it’s a person, I heard a cough from down there. It’s impossible to ignore. The temperature… Read More The Broken Machine Downstairs
DreamVaults
Mary Caserio <muffled> Three, two, one, go. You can’t read in your dreams. Not really. Think back to the last dream you remember. Any reading? Probably not. Ok, really think back. Is there any dream you remember reading in? Maybe? Sort of? Ok. Picture the letters or numbers as they appeared. I’ll wait. Are you… Read More DreamVaults
Dadi
Asiyah Arastu The narrow stairway with dead spiders lurking in the corners opens into an expansive basement. All available wallspace is occupied. Long wooden shelves mounted on steel brackets line two walls, floor to ceiling, stacked with clear boxes. Layers of fabric peek through the cloudy plastic. Some boxes are labeled—tulle, batiks, corduroy, denim, cotton… Read More Dadi
Les Miserables
Duncan Mwangi We found out about Esse’s wedding on the day Emm, Wafula and I started a band. We immediately hopped on a call to speculate on why this masc bi girl from Kilifi—who could do this thing with her tongue and whom we’d all had as an ex at one point—had decided to leave… Read More Les Miserables
The White Tiger of Gansu
Roy Zhu / 朱若忆 The sun set low over the sound of horse hooves on the empty steppe. It was early in the first term of the year, and clouds had broken low over the mountains and brought snow. Still, the rider crested the ridge of the road, showing no signs of softening his pace.… Read More The White Tiger of Gansu
Sasha
Aleah Vega For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be naked. Not like that-I’m not a whore. I just hate wearing clothes. I hate being covered. I like to think I’m beautiful, at least compared to the girls in my grade. What’s so wrong with allowing other people to enjoy that? To… Read More Sasha
Pas de Deux
Emilio Cabral The first time I met Ben was at a Juilliard summer dance intensive for high school seniors. We were pas de deux partners, and our instructor, a tall Black man with a thin face and close-cropped brown hair, was always yelling at us because Ben wouldn’t stop gushing over the book he was… Read More Pas de Deux
Late
Rebecca Wilson It has occurred to me that I will never know the time at which my mother died. She was always late—to church, to book club, to pick me up for piano lessons. Outwardly this perturbed me, but secretly it was a point of comfort, of endearing regularity: of never taking things quite too… Read More Late
Green Love
Isabelle Chin Planets are a little like dogs: they all belong to the same general group, but they look so different you can’t always tell. If Jen Li was a star in some distant galaxy, I know she’d be some sort of sun. I think I would settle for being the earth, stuck in her… Read More Green Love
