Kit Frick: [The men here are cruel],
[The men here can’t abide], &
[The men here have begun]

[The men here
are cruel]

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::

The men here are cruel             by some estimations
withholders of gesture             embrace

it’s very personal           but not how you think
this is infection’s way

                        they keep
a prudent distance         they spare you

have learned things
about mercy




[The men here
can’t abide]

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::

The men here can’t abide         the laws
of this place

the sequential order       held fast

some voices are weaker than others

some operate                 in different registers

the men hum in the frenetic way
a phone hums when called       they say aloud

I am a vessel       a phone             or no
a refrigerator




[The men here
have begun]

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::

The men here have begun their descent
through cloud                 feel hollowed

by it      rocked by it      whited out

how difficult to maintain         pressure found
at sea level

the chambers of the brain      switching off
one by one      shutting down

the chambers of sinew               chambers
of bone

how simple to feel elevated one day     aloft
buoyed up      then

dropped then                 brakeless         then

nothing but weight


ISSUE ONE:

ART: Jenn Brehm, Jason Polan,
Grant Willing

FICTION: Kirby Johnson, Anjali Sachdeva, Chad Simpson, S. E. Smith

NONFICTION: Laura E. Davis, Aaron Gilbreath, Alexandra Kimball, Elena Passarello, Alison Stine

POETRY:Samuel Amadon, Will Arbery, Elizabeth Arnold, Melissa Broder, Kara Candito, John Lee Clark, Graham Foust, Kit Frick, Paul Killebrew, Kyle McCord, Shane McCrae, Geoffrey G. O'Brien, Sandra Simonds, Bruce Smith

ET CETERA: Flannery O'Connor Soundboard, Poetry Bingo

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