spring 2017
Table of Contents
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Aztlan Travels Emiliano Sepulveda
Constantly Looking, Admitting Nothing
Paul Douglas McNeill II
Singing in Dark Times
Bhaswati Ghosh
from Electric Garden
Amanda Earl
from Glossary of Musical Terms rob mclennan
Red Sarongs
Clementine
Chelsea Comeau
Dear Miss Parker
Dear Mama
Chelene Knight
First Loves in Brevoort Park
Body Analysis
Erin Hiebert
We Could Have Called Him Joe, We Didn't
Juliane Okot Bitek
A Coke and a KitKat
Spenser Smith
Prayer For Our Past Selves
Esther McPhee
Inside My House
Gleaning Stones
Onjana Yawnghwe
The Lady or the Tiger? Michelle Brooks
Romeo, Romeo, WTF?
P.C. Vandall


Singing in Dark Times—a Manual for Encoding Dissent
Talk in whispers
But make them so low-pitched
That no one can hear
Them. Not even the person
You whisper to.
Clever one-liners are
Good. Check your
Ambition in using them, though.
Satire works well, too. It’s
Always safer to quote a dead or
Well-known writer.
Post music, lots of it,
Songs of protest and of
Love. Also post jokes and
Photos of food, cats, your
Toddler. Who doesn’t
Deserve a break from Aleppo’s
Bombed Children and India’s
Suicide-committing farmers?
Hide. Behind symbols
With multiple metaphors. Open-ended
Totems of ambiguity.
Amid the word-pelleting
From different camps, watch
Out for “Nation building,”
“Anti-national,” “Greater good,”
And “Patriotic.” Loaded missiles
Before which your feeble,
Weightless humanity must
Shiver in defeat.