University of San Francisco's Student-Run Literary Magazine
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 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 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 Jacob Dimpsey Lakshmi told me Manjeet’s parents sacrificed him to the gods. Cut his liver from his side and offered it dark and pulsing to a witch doctor. People are growing desperate, Lakshmi said, and some have turned to black magic. Monsoon season came and went with little more than a few drops of… Continue reading Puja
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 Zach Murphy Stewart came from a town where the water was abundant but never clean. Lillian came from a town where there wasn’t enough water to keep the wildfires at bay. Every Sunday morning they’d meet at a lone, wooden bench by the secluded pond at St. Catherine Trail. In the middle of the… Continue reading The Mallards of St. Catherine
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 Mallory Rader For Sabrina I drop your daughter onto her bed with a plunk. You are a daughter. I am a daughter. We joke about being each other’s mother. She wants to be a baby again. I touch something mythological in the air. Your toddler clenches her eyes shut, puts a thumb in her… Continue reading For Sabrina, For Riley
by JC Alfier From the river that received his ashes like alms,my father stands at his workbench, tinkers in the service of the lesser angels now,heaven acceding his need for a 40-watt bulb cornered away from the radiant surge of Shekinah glory.Departed souls about him will get used to the dimness, study him putzing about… Continue reading Tradesman
Ignatian Literary Magazine 