University of San Francisco's Student-Run Literary Magazine
(to Diane Mehta) by Drew Pisarra I lie on grass and stare at clouds while a friend reads the cosmic musings of Wallace Stevens, something about a snake and the snow and somebody's mother. Not mine. A figure more commonplace than divine. I don't comprehend it in full, even when my friend decodes two cryptic… Continue reading Leap Year
—Lorne Balfe, from The Last Man on the Moon by Maya Jacyszyn I've never pictured heaven with a front porch, or much of heaven really, but it comes to me now clearly. There are no clouds. Why do paintings always show clouds? And so much light? I suppose upward means clouds and light, but up… Continue reading Sitting on God’s Front Porch
by Jessi Fuller Fields I'm-wrong-about-this threatens to drop down dreadful-sincere but here's what I know— the smell of roast beef stoppers me and the pressure builds shooting me back to a table set for six on a Sunday father at the head God on his lips our hands join in blessings for the feast of… Continue reading Sturdy as potatoes
by Stephen Mead The paper cuts, the finger bleeds, but a clot comes, & will the pages stain? Try different parchment, re-do or remake a pattern of the red. Has the hand been through a lawnmower? Are razors seen in sheets? Faithless but for masochism, no deep trust but for the overboard & loving the… Continue reading Listen
by Alexis Pearson If not for my bare shoulder unexpectedly caressing your cheek stamping the beginning of a prolonged goodbye into the raw breath of strangers still I would not know how to turn walls into boats, your hands a sea with no bed my feet dangling. If learning to tread water means first drowning… Continue reading Glass Cages
by John Grey Only one window is lit, those familiar glass louvre slats. I briefly glimpse a moving shadow. That's where I had my desk, my swivel chair. And a clunky typewriter. And stacks of paper. And beyond that is where I slept, where I ate, watched TV, cleaned my teeth and showered. I feel… Continue reading Drawn, Once Again, To the Old House
