Inertia of the Noon Wraith, Jennifer Ruth Jackson
“She weeps, waters the cornfield while cackling”
Might Have to Lose It, Seth Geltman
“He had them where he wanted them, not just the sandwich artist, but the entire store, a gathering critical mass of attention, a nice undercurrent of trepidation. They were his now, momentary hostages, stuck until he decided what to do next.”
There’s nothing I love better than Jesus, Gale Acuff
“except my parents and my dog and my / favorite professional sports teams and / favorite wrestler, Ricky “the Dragon” / Steamboat, and Batman comics and pizza”
The Garbanzo Gangster, Colin Kemp
“I was just about to release the bottle—I wasn’t going to buy it anyway—when he bit my hand! For a guy who looked like a large ball of wax, he moved like a cobra.”
Medley for My Banshee, Joe Bishop
“Your keen wakes goldfish. / Your voice picks my ossicles, / Octaves purple with lupins.”
The Songbird Thing, L. Breneman
“We knew we were living in a simulation when the songbird thing happened. One moment the songbirds and their dawn chorus, the next moment song squirrels instead.”