Winter 2020
Follow Me Brother
You were never one for conversation, were you Samson? Yeah. Even when we were kids. I remember countless times back in grade school where the teacher would call on you, and you’d look down at your desk and speak real soft into the wood, your hands folded all timid-like on the desktop,… Read More Follow Me Brother
Conversations with a Stranger
I don’t know all the right things to say.In fact, I don’t even know the wrongThings. “Happy birthday!” If I knew a wayTo say it smooth, would you believe that IHad found it out with good intent? Or amI just a creep who made… Read More Conversations with a Stranger
Burial at Sea
Yesterday you almost drownedWhen you dropped eggs in the supermarket.You crouched picking at broken shells,Feeling the weight of stares and seawater,The undertow sweeping you into open ocean.The automatic doors closed and you ran,Clutching tight to cheap plastic bagsUntil your return to dry land. Or last week ordering fast food and stutteringAnd suddenly the store was… Read More Burial at Sea
Boris like a fish
“It’s a hand pump, just south of West Irving Park Road, near Cumberland Avenue. There’snothing conspiratorial about it, and if you know the pump I’m referring to, you need nodirections: For you, there is only one pump, only one source of water in the Chicago area worthdiscussing. You believe in this pump… you hear it… Read More Boris like a fish
Table of Contents
Animal Magnetism Boris Like a Fish Burial at Sea Holes Conversations with a Stranger Follow Me Brother i didn’t do it for you Electropherogram The Gravitational Constant Spontaneous Combustion Canyengue Untitled Swelling, Pregnant Rebirth Harvest Florecer Seasons Vibrancy in Gloom Tough Boy new nineveh The Huckleberry Lament Whiskey Aubade To See and To Be Seen… Read More Table of Contents
Editor’s Note
Welcome to the Winter 2020 issue of Helicon Literary and Arts Magazine! The first issue of Helicon appeared in 1980 as a Journal of the Humanities, an idea made real by founding editors Lisa Getter, Christina Calvit, and Michael Steele. Though after 40 years the magazine has changed alongside the times, Helicon remains committed as… Read More Editor’s Note
