I drum the steering wheel of the rental car with the flats of my palms. It’s the opening riff of a song by Yaz. It ta…
Archives
Archives
New Poetry by Rochelle Jewell Shapiro: “Each Night My Mother Dies Again”
EACH NIGHT MY MOTHER DIES AGAIN Each night the phone rings— Your mother has passed. Each night I expect to be …
New nonfiction from Rebecca Rolland: “A Letter to My Ten-Year-Old Daughter
“Something terrible happened today.” “At my school?” you asked. “No,” I replied. …
New Nonfiction from Dr. Anthony Gomes: “The Gun Culture in America: Will There be a Light at the End of the Tunnel?”
To fathom the Gun Culture and gun-related violence in the US, it is important to understand The Second Amendment (Ame…
New Fiction from Adrian Bonenberger: “Fort Mirror”
Getting posted to Fort Mirror was a death sentence. The most coveted of all postings, soldiers jockeyed for th…
New Fiction from Terry Sanville: “The Metallic Sound of Rain”
Just about every afternoon the wind came up suddenly, stirring the dust that blew through the screens of our company’…
New Fiction from Brian Barry Turner: “Death Takes a Temporary Duty Assignment”
Death had narrowed his search of potential candidates down to two soldiers, both with high kill counts. Qualified app…
New Poetry by Stephen Massimilla: “Wounded”
WOUNDED —to Laura Bleating thing without wool Thunder without sound Ghost of wooded peaks, of cons…
New Poetry by Kevin Honold: “A Brief History of the Spanish Conquest”
A Brief History of the Spanish Conquest Tell me again of that fabulous kingdom where a single ear of co…
New Poetry from Gail Nielsen: “Something Like Nightfall”
SOMETHING LIKE NIGHTFALL something, like night falls slow, as if nothing in the world has ever moved but dista…
New Nonfiction from Ulf Pike: “Tone Deaf”
With a slightly youthful blurring of reality, sandhill cranes resemble pterodactyls in flight. Each year when they re…
Interview with Tom Keating, Author of ‘Yesterday’s Soldier’
Andria Williams for The Wrath-Bearing Tree: I was honored to read Tom Keating’s memoir, ‘Yesterday’…
New Review from Brian Castner: Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Bomber Mafia”
Why did Malcolm Gladwell write a World War II book? The bombing campaign over Europe and Japan is hardly his typical …
New Poetry by Doris Ferleger: “Praying at the Temple of Forgiveness,” “Internal Wind,” Driving Down Old Eros Highway,” and “Summer Says”
Praying at the Temple of Forgiveness for Zea Joy, in memoriam Last Monday you threw yourself, your body, dress…
New Poetry by Mary Ann Dimand: “Earth Appreciation” and “Lusting, Stinting”
New poetry by Mary Ann Dimand: “Earth Appreciation” and “Lusting, Stinting”
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New Fiction from J.G.P. MacAdam: “A Sleeping Peace”
Author’s note: I arrived at this story after reading an article in Rolling Stone called ‘Highway to Hell:…
New Poetry by Ricardo Moran: “ABBA-1975” and “On the Street”
ABBA-1975 Abba’s lyrics, like water shot from La Bufadora, mingle with volcanic steam from metallic pots of corn. And…
New Nonfiction from Rob Bokkon: “The Last of the Gonzo Boys: P.J. O’Rourke, War, and the Evolution of a Political Mind”
“We hear the Iraqi army is systematically blowing up buildings in downtown Kuwait City. If the architecture in Kuwait…
New Fiction from Steve Kiernan: “War Ensemble”
Holding Dick Cheney’s shotgun is not exactly how I thought I’d be spending my time when I joined the Marines. It was …
New Fiction from Jillian Danback-McGhan: “Allied”
I met the Lieutenant at a diplomatic reception at our embassy. Carrying papers which issued weaponry to his nation’s …
New Poetry by Michael Carson: “Politics”
Politics Every 20 years or so boys dress up And kill each other for fun. It’s the way of the wrack of the world The w…
New Nonfiction: “Underground” by Mark Hummel
In my childhood, television was a great unifier, for there existed a limited choice of three television networks, dis…
New Poetry by Kevin Norwood: “Rabbits in Autumn”
RABBITS IN AUTUMN Who will find our bones in a thousand years, bleached and brittle under the unyielding sun, scatter…
New Poetry by Joddy Murray: “Aphrodite Urania,” “Chronos After Castrating His Father,” “Grandpa Uranus, Rainmaker,” and “Uranus’ Genital Blood”
Aphrodite Urania From a womb of foam I came to be a woman, heavenly gestated from Father, who also brought wea…
New Poetry by Emily Hyland: “Rehab Day 1,” “Rehab Day 4,” “Rehab Day 9,” “Rehab Day 11,” and “Rehab Day 19”
REHAB DAY 1 He hadn’t told me, hadn’t stopped drinking drank beer in the hallway near recycling where people b…
New Nonfiction from J.G.P. MacAdam: “Was His Name Mohammed Hassan?”
I don’t want to keep going back there. I’m damn near forty years old; too broke and tubby to deploy anymore. It’s my …
New Fiction from Amar Benchikha: “Flight”
CONTENT WARNING: A hate crime against an Arab-American is committed in the story. Being an Arab-American myself, the …
New Poetry by Maggie Harrison: “Clutch and Bless”
my heart is a raspberry juicy yet taut fragile temporal eat it now before it degrades and leaves a tasteless p…
New Nonfiction from Karl Meade: “Knee-Capped”
We all live in a kind of delirium: as if we have control of our lives, while we know damn well something is coming. W…
New Poetry by Carol Graser: “Parkinson’s Triolet” and “Summer Isolation”
THE WIDENING FAULT / image by Amalie Flynn Parkinson’s Triolet I cup the base of your skull, catch precious ce…
New Fiction from Jim Speese: “The Darkness”
Sometimes these things happen. You wake from a deep sleep, whether a short afternoon nap or a long night’s slumber, a…
New Poetry by Betsy Martin: “About What You Have,” “Female Figure in Photos,” and “To Missoula”
GRASSES QUIVER BEFORE / image by Amalie Flynn ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE In my dream Dad, age one hundred twelve, has…
New Nonfiction from Jon Imparato: “You Had Me at Afghanistan”
“I was lying in a burned‐out basement with the full moon in my eyes. I was hoping for replacement when the sun burst …
Book Review: Lauren Hough’s ‘Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing’ and Sari Fordham’s ‘Wait for God to Notice’
“I was like an inept spy pretending to be American based on movies I’d watched and books I’d read.” — Lauren Ho…
New Fiction from J. Malcolm Garcia: “Love Engagement”
Noor and his wife Damsa moved to Paris when the Russians invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Twenty-two years later, after t…
New Nonfiction from M.C. Armstrong: “J.F.K. Revisited: Through the Looking-Glass”
I write this review of Oliver Stone’s new film during the most bizarre month in America since the January of the Capi…
Interview with Navy Veteran and Artist Skip Rohde, by Larry Abbott
Skip Rohde was an officer in the Navy for twenty-two years, with four submarine deployments and service in Desert Shi…
New Poetry by Suzanne O’Connell: “Airport Luggage Carousel” and “Shipwreck”
Airport Luggage Carousel A battered cardboard boxholes punched in the sidetied with frayed ropelid popping upplastere…
New Poetry by Saramanda Swigart: “Reckoning” and “The Small I”
RECKONING don’t worry about mei am not well but you’ve worried enoughmy prosperity has a body count— this shielded fl…
Book Review: David Ervin on Jerad Alexander’s ‘VOLUNTEERS: GROWING UP IN THE FOREVER WAR’
As the United States marks the twentieth anniversary of the beginning of the Global War on Terror as well as an ugly …
New Poetry by Ben Weakley: “In Some Distant Country” and “How Will You Answer”
In Some Distant Country We have seen this before, in booksand on the screen, like dust plumes risingin some distant c…
New Fiction from Hadeel Salameh: “Everything Will Be Okay”
1. Her Friend the Israeli (Eli) Mais got a phone call from her parents in the occupied territories of the West Bank. …
New Nonfiction from Bettina Rolyn: “Adjustment Disorder”
For thirteen years, I stored my boxes of army documents and medical records in various basements, closets, and attics…
New Fiction from John Milas: “Burning the Dragon”
Stautner wasn’t my friend anymore. He didn’t get promoted with the rest of us on the first of the month. Now a fire b…
New Poetry by Naomi Ruth Lowinsky: “In And Out Of Time,” “In The Wake Of Our Lady Of The Double-Edged Axe The Notorious RBG,” “Prepping For Apocalypse,” “Sideswiped,” and “The Queen Of Souls”
IN AND OUT OF TIME In the fire-eaten landin the smoke-drenched airPUT CHARACTI dream PUT CHARACTCrystal Lake &nb…
New Fiction from Jon Imparato: “You Had Me at Afghanistan”
“I was lying in a burned‐out basement with the full moon in my eyes. I was hoping for replacement when the sun burst …
New Poetry by D.W. McLachlan: “Tanana River” and “The Heaviness of Age”
Tanana River We followed your Hilux along the riparian zone,a green snake blooming through the desert brown,when you …
New Interview from Larry Abbott: Suzanne Rancourt on Poetry, Myth, Nature, Indigenous Life
Suzanne Rancourt’s new book of poems, Old Stones, New Roads (2021) builds on the work of her two previous books (Bill…
New Fiction from Moe Hashemi: “Javid”
We buried Javid on a gloomy Friday morning in late December, shortly before Ali was gassed on the battlefront. All th…
New Poetry by Tony Marconi: “Song of the Roadway Door”
…three hundred miles,PUT CHahead the road more visiblePUT CHas the land dissolves in the pink light …