November Spotlight
Poetry: “Tallulah You Are Not Mine” by Carrie Chappell
A woman in my workshop
Once told me that the way in which
Poetry: “Pattern Recognition” by Heikki Hutari
We might have called it optimal and coming off the injured list we might have felt that we were flying. What if we inhaled tautology and exhaled contradiction, waited till the master plan was finalized and then found fault?
Poetry: “Yeah, Sure” and “We’re Not There Yet” by Bryce Berkowitz
Deep in the blue-green hills,
beyond the butterfly bush, hours from the heartland,
worn-down by the brocades of homesickness—a ladybug
walks along the slender leaf of an aloe plant.
Poetry: “in case of emergency” by Patrycja Humienik
if/when glass enters the bloodstream try not to panic
you can cry you can drink detox tea phone a friend take the call in the tub go to urgent care it is
Fiction: “Cat Out of the Bag” by Tyler Munro
Cynthia killed Mr. Personality.
Smothered him lights out under Richard’s special neck pillow. He didn’t look dead, though. Just asleep. His punched-in Persian face all mellow.
Fiction: “If I Were You” by Ray Nayler
1. If I were you, I would pack my bags and leave this place. I would not pack everything: I would select a certain number of the most important items. I would cancel my cell phone, because carrying a cell phone is not leaving.
Non-Fiction: “Cinders” by Stephanie Dickinson
Resurrect the girl getting off the Trailways in Raleigh, a backwater capital. The bus has stopped in every town since the Blue Ridge Mountains and the smell of the coach is steeped in cold tobacco smoke and the guts of meat lunches.