University of San Francisco's Student-Run Literary Magazine
by L. M. Pino The Woman Without Skin 1. She finds you at a party. The grad student bar is hot and cramped, a pulsing mass of bare arms, thighs, collarbones. She turns among them, green eyes almost glowing, skin reflecting the gold of the lights. You spend the night pretending not to watch her… Continue reading The Woman Without Skin
by Tamara J. Madison for MariOla (“Mama”) who gave us everything she had… Note: Twilight sleep was an amnesic state commonly induced during the early twentieth century by the injection of certain drugs to provide pain relief during and also erase the memory of childbirth. Your breath rushes.Your voice breaks the air. Your body, my… Continue reading Twilight Baby
by Mariya Mykhaylova I took my heart out last nightBound with nerves,Dressed with tears,And served it rare. A new cavity, spacious and emptyMy lungs took up the newfound roomThe heart—you didn’t know what to do—Mostly pushed it around on your plate. You rarely show your soft belly,All of your organs in their rightful place.Suddenly I… Continue reading I Took my Heart Out Last Night
by Madi Giovina after Micheal McCann lying together,bodies loud & mouths quiet,morning becomes night becomes morning again we don't know how much time has passed but the sun has risen & set & risen again & we have risen & set & risen & set & laughed & sweat & laughed & sweat & the shadow… Continue reading orbitals
by John Grey I go to the bookshelf,pull down The Complete Works Of Shakespeare,open it to some random page— King Lear— no, that’s not what I want. Where is All’s Well That Ends Wellwhen you need it?Or Timon Of Athens for that matter.I put it back.I wasn’t in the mood for Elizabethan playwrights anyhow. Why… Continue reading WHILE SHE DOZES OFF AFTER SEX
by Casey McConahay “WHEN AM I GONNA LOSE YOU” - LOCAL NATIVES It was during the pandemic—during the early weeks when everything felt uncertain—and when we sat on your porch together, you told me about the boxes you were disinfecting and about how your sister, who was worried about you, would be upset that we… Continue reading Mixtape
by Cynthia J. Roman Cabrera I wish I understood my mother’s mystery. I feel the sting like a bang on my funny bone when people share positive memories of their mothers. I am envious of people who know their mothers. I know my mother by association. We are kinfolk, but not chosen folk. I would… Continue reading Rootlessness
by Mariam Ahmed where do dreams gowhen we awaken? they dissipate intounknown dimensions a portal opens siphoningair from my lungs why is it harder to breathewhen I’mwith you? my oncewild thoughts turning stale quick afteryou spoke so soft leave my bleeding hearton this tray table I’m in no upright position when the oxygenmask fallsI won’t reach for it the barest… Continue reading Saturation: A Sequence
by Walter Weinschenk Sailors flee from landTo leave their pain behind;They cannot bear the loss of loveThat pulsed through armsThat reached for them at night,But grew exhaustedIn the course of time. Sailors are deluded:The ocean offers no asylum;The sea is not a refugeAnd loss cannot be thrown awayOr left upon the wharf;A sailor cannot fly… Continue reading I’ll Be a Sailor
by Sam Kaspar Tattoo Parlor: a superficial looking endeavor gets under your skininner queries waken with the tingling in my limbshelloget in syncInk weariesNice assCanvas, vast expansive, needles prickI stay whole and don’t let it break me thoughI internalize lots of dyeFor a tattered up wolf tatDid I really like it enough to go this… Continue reading Nothing A Doll
Ignatian Literary Magazine 