University of San Francisco's Student-Run Literary Magazine
by Abigail Jensen I’ve never known anyone to get excitedat the sight of a penis, says the privileged cis lesbianin all her honest beauty and gloryafter throwing back a shot ofoverpriced vodka. She rests her forearms on the sticky barand whips her head in my direction.I glare back while the others chuckle. Whenever we stumble… Continue reading Tall and Narrow
by Luke Horsey this city was meant to be the surrogate father of the prankthat was played in my first love’s arms, back on the north London fringe in my teensand now you’re recycling the joke: it may well have been salt you were rubbing into my backas I folded in your arms like a… Continue reading poisson d’avril
by William Watson No matter how much I try to savour the taste of my rich life, I stall. Yet time continues. After anguishing over a date change, I question why I fail to transform with the passing minutes, the hydration and thirst of my body, and the rising and setting of the sun. I’m… Continue reading The Fly, the 8 Ball, and Me
by Sean MacPhee So, Abby, there’s this boy. There’s this scarf he has. It’s a little big, a little thick, a little soft. Turquoise, which he supposes is his favorite color. It’s four hours away and about four years old, knitted by a girl who he loved with as much of his little fourteen-year-old heart… Continue reading Scarfy
by Jacob Strunk Content warning: depictions of substance abuse, violence, and suicide I flicker to life. In the gloom, I watch her trembling hand pull slowly away. Breathing, I reach out, find purchase, take hold. She retreats a step at a time. I find my footing. I begin to rise. I hunger. She’s let me… Continue reading Last Call at Lake Country Lodge
by Ashley Hardin I’m sorry if you asked me a question and there was no reply. I was in the middle of listening to my invasive thoughts about a peculiar conflict in front of me. One-third of my grandparents’ circular ottoman was missing its light brown leather top straight down. This error had started to grow… Continue reading OCD
by Colten Dom My hands turn to your back like tonight’s sky, gleaming somewhere in an ancestral skull revealed by a retreating glacier— reconvened after a cloudy evening, squinting, kneading familiar structures, lines of gravity placing each stain as I find it. Freckles metastasize; stars pull and are themselves pulled. You touch my skin to… Continue reading Constellation
by Dahlia R. Trigger Warning: Alcoholism/Emotional Neglect Head pounding and bones aching beneath those bamboo sheets— just a sip would turn the throbbing into a dull ache, but the shelf was right by your room. By that hallway and that photo of me holding you on our stone steps at 5 pounds and 2 ounces— … Continue reading Erysichthon
by Ingrid Marie Jensen ‘Where’ve you been all my life?’ Jack Harris asks with a crooked smile, both incandescent and terrifying, that’s real charm along with eyes like Lake Michigan in a storm and an expensive suit. he’s somebody special and don’t he know it! song slides off slick vinyl, filling the air like a… Continue reading Billie, 1933
by Stone Mims To Mwila, C.T, N.R. and other Black students: As you walk across the stage on this mild, Michigan afternoon, I feel an immense pride; I feel an immense sadness. This double consciousness results from the complicated situation of your coming of age. On one hand, as I look into your bright, young… Continue reading A Letter to My Students
Ignatian Literary Magazine 