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Two Poems by Haley DiRenzo
Betta FishMy senior year of high school, I pulled a betta fish from a bag. Licorice candy scales reflecting through the glass. An exercise in incorporating an object into a speech: just keep swimming. I tried to return the fish to the teacher, but she told me it was mine. On freedom’s cusp, I did Continue reading
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I’m Tired of Numbers
by Chloe Lee I’m tired of numbers.Of waking up to a clockand falling asleep to one.Of calculating how many hours I got, how many I missed,how many I still need.They are everywhere.Calories on a granola bar,digits glowing on a bathroom scale, percentages on tests that don’t ask how long I studiedor how much I cried.They Continue reading
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Two Poems by Stacey Lounsberry
This is Where We SplitMy head breaks the surface for a drink of air, and I see them:my stepsons coming into my water like divorce-sized bombs.Your voices, air-raid sirens, surround me.Your group of teenage boys swarm the mid-lake boulder:pimpled, hairless chests, too-red lips like vinegary ketchup kisses. They look just like you.I swim out to Continue reading
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Two Poems by Rikki Santer
No, butwhat’s floating inside these couplets and what you know the cold wantsstart with a sign unknownghost in the machine moving through the long perse of doubt andwhat’s clicking between your earswhat could be the lone one linerand what the dream thinksthe din of crackers in your mouthcod liver oil laced with laughing gaslive oak Continue reading
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Issue 1.01 is Live!
by Jeffrey Heath Our first issue is now live on the site. You can view the free PDF edition here. Print and Kindle editions are also available via Amazon. Jeffrey Heath, Founding Editor, EIC – January House Literary Journal Continue reading
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Telling the Bees
by Grace Massey In Celtic tradition, families tell their bees everything—births, marriages, deaths. Bees are also messengers between worlds.Three weddings this summergoth princesses, groomsmen in kilts, bride swollen out to here.The voles consumed the lily bulbs, tulips were shipwrecked. But you know this.Over lunch Doris let slip that her dogs will outlive her, they’re oldbut Continue reading
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Moment in American Nectarine
by Michael Dwayne Smith Thus radiant, therefore unlasting, this poemthat is Cactus Wren with its jar-jar-jar, nesthatching messages from a spirit world humanshave long forgotten. Sublimity, as if it weresky. Minimalism, as if it were happiness. Yourtumor, your PTSD, your children vapingurns full of disenchantment, the slurry speechof your ancient gods, jubilant all. The past Continue reading
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A Choice of Living
by Christina Fong It’s the kind of spring day that permeates all conversation until it can’t be talked about anymore and must simply be enjoyed. The warm temperatures promise to stay for good this time, and with that promise, all the winter frost sitting heavy on everyone’s shoulders gradually drips away. The air smells sweet Continue reading
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My Fourth of July Grocery List Reveals What America Means to Me
by Joan Leotta From my grocery listyou might suspectmy heritage is Italian:eggplantred bell pepperfinocchioartichokesgarlicDe Cecco pastaWhen the checkout clerkasks about the finocchioI tell her it is called anise in her computerChicken wings, hot dogs and burgers,will also have a place at our barbeque.She smiles as she rings them up.She and I often exchange recipes.Eggplant will Continue reading
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Talent
by Paul Hostovsky He played that thing all the time: waking, sleeping, walking, riding his bike, reclining in the bathtub fully clothed, where the acoustics were the best, he said. And in the backseat of the family Buick when we were trying to have a conversation up front. It was annoying. If we turned the Continue reading
January House Literary Journal 