*Content Warning* This story contains themes of kidnapping, drug abuse, animal cruelty, and physical and verbal abuse. Read with caution if such themes may be upsetting. *** Shelby slowly walks down the corridor into the living room, where she sits in a round wicker chair. She looks down at her feet and clasps her hands ...

a twist in your gut marks this violent path a heartbeat taken a breath driven out his smile shadows your memories and the blood that soiled his face when he died father’s ghost taunts you in the night where peace can find no purchase in your dreams thirstful vengeance marks your violent path bodies in ...

A dying fire burns in the hearth, grey smoke unfurling and twisting into the open air. Dust particles alight beneath the breaking of a new day. And he sits in his chair, old, decrepit, half-mad, as old thoughts bring fresh wounds. The first thought is of her smile: how it crinkled her face and brought ...

Two eyes struck him cold Like snowballs pelting him flush His body frozen in fear, the streets   rising up in him again, shoulders tightening Legs burning in a crouch ready to pounce & catalyze another man’s demise   His nemesis, sitting in his mind’s eye, reached in his pocket for prison house sharpness, the ...

Thank you for your drooping branches, Graying at the stems and leaves splaying Between me & a race soldier’s bullet. I never knew what made the wind Break so forcefully – left and unfettered, Swaying the grass in unison like a hard jazz step, Seconds before the next Martyr’s lament Whisked in quarter time to ...

The boy passed the joint to his grandfather. A bulbous white cloud enveloped them, Locking souls together by generations: Generations walking backwards, Generations drowning under design and democracy, Generations pacing below sea level, Slave ships cresting high above their abandoned spirits. The Elder’s gray eyes dared look to the boy, A solitary moment imprisoned between ...

The wet tile floor firm against my cheek. If I could have drowned in my tears… I would have removed my life vest without hesitation.   I shielded the truth by turning on the fan and shower water, by locking the bathroom doors, and by keeping this tale an undisturbed secret— until today.   I ...