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Living PlasticsThey sat under the willow tree turning and twisting the soft plastic arms and legs, slipping the electric colors and bright plastic shoes onto the naked dolls. Sammy squeezed a pair of blue jeans over slim hips and Phoebe showed him how to stuff the bright orange turtleneck under the flowing blonde hair. Cliffy moaned as he tried to force his doll into a glowing pink party dress that had somehow turned inside out to expose the curve of the plastic underneath. He finally handed the doll to Phoebe and she adjusted the dress and spread its pink ruffles, making them fluff over the doll’s slim thighs and legs. "Put the clothes on her, not her on the clothes," Phoebe told him, and went back to fitting the studded black motorcycle jacket on the svelte red headed doll she turned between her fingers. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Night Poem A bed made by my grandfather: white frame, iron bars a skeleton twisting upward. The bones settle The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
HickoryBy Lydia A. Cyrus QuailBellMagazine.com In the beginning there were only walnuts. Scattered across the concrete, green softballs, not ripe, solid as stone. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
A Cautious Life You used to crave the smell of night hurtling past till the last open window bounced your nerve from the car The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Methods of UprootingBy Emily Paskevics QuailBellMagazine.com I. How little rituals begin Here, we aren’t yet the imposters. Mammalian or larval, our bodies are skin-rendered altars. We crawl, The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
AddictionIt started with a knock at the door She felt trapped inside the room The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Subtilize It"Is it not curious, that so vast a being as the whale should see the world through so small an eye, and hear the thunder though an ear which is smaller than a hare’s? But if his eyes were broad as the lens of Herschel’s great telescope; and his ears as capacious as the porches of cathedrals; would that make him any longer of sight, or sharper of hearing? Not at all.—Why then do you try to ‘enlarge’ your mind? Subtilize it."--Herman Melville You strain to turn yourself right-side out The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
String PluckAs I lay my head in the lap of a girl whose real name never crossed my lips something happens as her fingers pluck my virgin hairs like harp strings. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Into the WavesWords by Ryo Shaw QuailBellMagazine.com When was it? When did the thought, the concept first enter your head? It wasn’t a special moment, you remember. You walked down your twisting drive way in orange shorts, your mother not far ahead. Your six year old brain realized it all at once. It felt like an icy hand that would push you, head first into a pool seven years later. That hand, you think, never really let go. In fact you were quite taken with it. Lured, by that sweet smelly summer day, you have followed it for what feels like as long as you can remember (That’s the funny thing about childhood memories isn’t it? Everything could be the first thing you remember if you forget hard enough). The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Solstice By Devon Balwit QuailBellMagazine.com The season holds my head under water, light guttering, streets clogged |