University of San Francisco's Student-Run Literary Magazine
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 Sarah Inouye Content warnings for extended exploration of grief, death, and loss of autonomy. Briefly, disordered weight and body thoughts. What I knew of love, in my final year, coalesced in my green truck. It had been abandoned after the flood that one summer. It was a Californian miracle, both truck and overflow. No… Continue reading The Transfer
by Jennifer Fischer Content warning: references to mass gun violence and the accidental death of a child. Kate made her way to Tommy’s bathroom instead of her own. She sat on the toilet and stared at the white shower curtain with a large T-Rex vomiting out a rainbow on it. Her heart raced, but she… Continue reading Tommy’s Dragon
by Theo Fox Perhaps it was their sad, triangular eyes, or the way their waddling bodies bobbed in and out of the field of view of his binoculars, but every time Eli settled down amongst the heather-dotted rocks to observe the puffins, instead of feeling voyeuristic he felt exposed. The afternoon ocean smashed into the… Continue reading Convergence
by Jennifer Love I’d become accustomed to the scalp scent of her bowed head when she knelt in prayer before my perch on her desk, which she’d been doing increasingly often since the death-prediction incident. There was a palm-sized, purple velvet pillow for me up here, adorned with gold tassels and surrounded with precious objects… Continue reading Creature, Stirring
by Richard Weems When the dog bites into my father’s forearm, I am tempted for a moment to intercede. After all, there have to be more ideal points of attack than that tough strip of muscle. My research suggested the belly was the most vulnerable and scrumptious entryway, but, in the end, I defer to… Continue reading Dog Bite
by Daniel Tarker “These reunions are always. . .” I tried to find the right word, but it was elusive. Miserable. Depressing. Death-defying. I finally settled on “unbearable.” I raised my plastic cup of microbrew and added, “the only thing that makes these events bearable is the booze.” Jennifer smiled politely and looked over at… Continue reading Love in a Capitalist Hellscape
by Aamena Lalji We eat popsicles in front of the television, sucking on them ‘til our cheeks are sore, peeling like wallpaper. Red juice drips down both our chins. You break the stick in half and tuck the pieces beneath your top lip, over your front teeth, smile that gummy smile at me. “I’m a… Continue reading Walrus
by R. H. Nicholson Father Francis Paganini was dead. He had collapsed in the rectory kitchen while drinking a glass of water as he cooled down from playing basketball with the fifth-grade boys at St. Joseph of Arimathea School. A youthful, vigorous man of deep faith, whose unbound energy was contagious among his parishioners, Father… Continue reading Father Frank’s Funeral
by Amanda Vogt I met a boy at the swimming pool once. He was skinny and flat—like all it would take was one jab of my finger to send him stumbling backward, sinking below the ripples of the water. We stood chest to chest, too close to the ledge, his suit dripping icy splashes onto… Continue reading The Swimming Pool
Ignatian Literary Magazine 