Issue #4
Coffin Nails
Written by Sean McCabe   

 

Mr. Downes was out sick for three days. Mr. Madden took our class until our hero should recover. We were in our last year of primary school so it was considered important that we have a teacher present at all times. There was the entrance exam to the classical school to prepare for.

Some said Mr. Downes had taken time off because the O'Mahoneys' Gaelic football team had won the county championship. He was seen driving his car around Baile, his window down, grinning and waving at fans who spotted him, and him supposed to be in bed with flu. If that was true there was no chance he'd get in trouble with headmaster Craven. He was a hero to the whole town now. He had scored two goals in the Sunday final. His photo had appeared in the Chronicle, alongside one of the full team.

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A Word We All Know
Written by B.J. Hollars   

 

This was back in the days of significant figures and scientific form and concepts that far outreached our ability to truly understand them.

Fifth grade theater class, and we wrote a play, Mrs. King fed us lines, and I, with one line, had to issue the first to the crowd.

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Afghan Woman
Written by Bonnie MacAllister   

 

There is a woman in a rural village.

She separates strands of fiber,

Douses the fibers in plant dyes,

Lovely green filaments extracted

Straight from chlorophyll,

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Hiro's Sushi Bar
Written by Robert K. Omura   

 

Hiro tucks two heads

in a bed of lettuce

declares triumphant,

It's a no-blainah!

serves it chilled

with warm sake and steamed rice

calls it Lealpolitiku.

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Song Sheets
Written by Jeanpaul Ferro   

 

She says she wants someone perfect,

a fresco of Moldavia on her bedroom wall,

the rich, deep misery of the Persians,

golds and reds intact,

human figures becoming Muslim.

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Thief
Written by Alla Vilnyanskaya   

 

He sees her

Like a vision

Steals her

Like a jewel

Lulls her

Like a baby

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