Category Archives: National Issue 4 Spring 2026

I am the one holding the lit match.                  And I am the one burning. And                             I like that the fire is kind enough                   to leave me a body in another form. And I am the one pouring the                    water of my eyes to quench the fire.                             To soak the weightContinue reading “Self-immolation – Gospel Chinedu”

Cracked stone throbs like sorrowful hearts, Their stones ajar as an open maw. Midnight drips from the rafters, waxen, Air damp with musk. My skin appears bare— Absent of scratched metal, Chilled at the thought of missed battles, Ghosts appearing as brands. Their whispers no longer a shock, Inflicted with madness long Before my firstContinue reading “Pyre’s Night – Audrey Donnell”

On most weekday mornings in Tokyo I board the Keiyō Line with a small stack of vocabulary cards and the quiet determination of a man who has decided, midlife, to become illiterate again on purpose. I mouth syllables under my breath. A, i, u, e, o. Ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. The train rocks gentlyContinue reading “Shisa Kankō…Pointing, Calling – Zary Fekete”

Picked up and taken to sea in her dying waves melting across rock and sand smashing its arms into boulders eager to bruise I’m sinking in the bathtub with melting ice above craters like whirlpools near my feet taking ships and whales sucking us all the below where infinity spheres bodies loop around rope tiedContinue reading “My Bathtub (the Pacific) – Breanna Jones”