![subjugation, not safe](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/poems/24.07.05.poem_Myriam_Klatt_artwork350.png)
subjugation wait, i can explain -- i used to be feral, chewing raw meat with sugary teeth, sucking on a carcass during sleepless nights, trying to fend off boars and …
Poetry
Leonard and I had laughed hard first, then with trepidation, when Caroline, at five years old and in …
Short Story
My mind is blurry when I write. What is writing, where does it go, I do not know.
Essay
Sunny And now the sun appears – an arrogant schoolboy staring through my window – What am I doing? Just looking.
Poetry
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Web Features
![Last Night](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/stories/24.06.20.story_Yuan_Changming_artwork350.png)
Now, with your temporary elopement drawing to an end, every minute spent together was, for both of you, “worth …
Short Story
![Ye Brazen Beasts](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/stories/24.06.17.story_Leonnard_Menifee350.png)
1793The hickories and black gums done been naked a piece, and Christmas come and went two months past. …
Short Story
![The Father Who Tried his Hardest](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/flash/24.06.13.flash_Eli_S._Evans350.png)
There once was a father who tried his hardest to achieve his goal of teaching his son to …
Flash Fiction
![Frank and Mattie](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/stories/24.06.12.story_Makayla_Carmichael350.png)
Just below the fine white linen tablecloth, on his lap where only she could see it, he held …
Short Story
![Walking the Gulf Stream](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/flash/24.06.03.flash_Mia_Marion350.png)
I like to walk fast and imagine minutes falling away on the other side of whatever journey is unfolding. …
Flash Fiction
![Childhood](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/poems/24.05.29.poem_Nerys_Schmetterling_artwork_Nerys_Schmetterling350.png)
I lived in a town where starving girls weaved Paper chains from heartstrings and gum wrappers, Staving off reality with cheap spirits coaxed from older lovers I lived …
Poetry
![The Summer I Stopped Eating](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/poems/24.05.28.poem_Nerys_Schmetterling_artwork_Schmetterling350.png)
Peeling oranges with our eyes closed, on a rooftop lidded with stars Moon scrapes away a crescent of the sky and we cut away pounds of Our flesh …
Poetry
![Party](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/poems/24.05.27.poem_Nerys_Schmetterling_artwork_Nerys_Schmetterling350.png)
Ketamine kisses douse a blazing girl with the sick tang of gasoline, heartthrob, dementia She droops, star splayed and eager in her drowsiness, sped by the rhyme …
Poetry
![Other; In Her Tavern; Rubble](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/poems/24.05.24.poem_Frances_Koziar350.png)
Other Faces shift in my dreams from us to them and back. They are with me, free in that place: my people, cast out as Other from this …
Poetry
![Smarties](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/flash/24.05.21.flash_Sarah_Selim_artwork_Sarah_Selim350.png)
Candy wrappers slathered onto wooden tables and chip bags’ potent smells wafted through the air and around the …
Flash Fiction
![Blind Man In The Snow](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/flash/24.05.19.flash_Michael_FitzMichael350.png)
Blind Man in the Snow I was troubled about something, I can't remember what. It might have …
Flash Fiction
![It Will Come Back, Distant Music, Transient Stroke, Basic Math](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/poems/24.05.17.poem_Sharon_Scholl_artwork_DALLE350.png)
It Will Come Back we say (fingers crossed, knock on wood, salt over shoulder) because it always has, because we don’t know what we’ll do if it doesn’t. Spring, …
Poetry
![Connection](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/flash/24.05.11.flash_Huina_Zheng_artwork_Huina_Zheng350.png)
On the rare occasion when I dine with friends, I find that not only I, but also Lan, …
Flash Fiction
![Meal Time](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/poems/24.05.08.poem_Alex_Deng_reel350.png)
Meal Time Each morning, I boil the ocean to make my tea. I season my eggs with just sea and I eat it with a side of …
Poetry
![Terms and Conditions](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/stories/24.05.07.story_Joseph_Levens_insta350.png)
Must be sixteen or older and show valid identificationI don’t personally have a problem with younger boys, but rules …
Short Story
![Cosmic Joke, Key](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/poems/24.05.05.poem_Michael_Pollentine350.png)
Cosmic Joke I’m dying. screamed out into windowless night before being coaxed back to a confused bed.
Poetry
![“The Dishwasher,” “Splitscreen,” “Countdown,” “Immovable Property”](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/poems/24.05.04.poem_Joel_Bush350.png)
The Dishwasher I work the constellations of soap foam as the steam rolls up like little scrolls. My wife is still asleep.
Poetry
![Frimps](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/stories/24.05.03.story_Stephen_Baily350.png)
If I’ve learned one thing in my long slog through this vale of tears, it’s that any nincompoop …
Short Story
![What Keeps Her, What Do We Pick Up, Ballet of War](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/poems/24.05.03.poem_Uzomah_Ugwu_artwork_Uzomah_Ugwu350.png)
What Keeps Her Blind exchange Can’t look both ways Caved in discussions All up in the air He said she was Loose Tight percussion Kept her moving By the jukebox …
Poetry
![Baby Teeth](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/stories/24.04.24.story_Shana_Raphaeli350.png)
Old Skeezer died many years back, before my time even. He was the town miser who lived at …
Short Story
![At Loggerheads](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/stories/24.04.22.story_Liza_Potvin350.png)
Kim is curled up in her favourite wingback chair, wrapped in the crocheted blanket her mother made for her …
Short Story
![ADOLES-NO-SENSE](https://nydumbos3bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/static/images/webfeatures/poems/24.04.21.poem_Gerard_Sarnat350.png)
pheromonal? Zeusian grok: outa (I thought) lotta blue sky a lightning bolt surprises you distracts radar from what I had presumed an ability to navigate these …
Poetry