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Breath & Shadow

Fall 2014 - Vol. 11, Issue 4

"Trinkets"

Written By

Raud Kennedy

That’ll make me happy,

Or, they’ll make me complete.

I think I want something

Or I want to be with someone...

"Who?"

Written By

Lela Marie De La Garza

"Hi..." I say tentatively.

"Hi. I'm Kevin. We've met before."

I didn't remember of course.

"I'm Joan. But you probably know that if we've met before."

"I do know that. You don't realize it, but there was a time you didn't remember your own name."
"Do I have a last name?"

"Hutchinson."

"Medication" and "Game of Thrones"

Written By

Sergio Ortiz

Half asleep and wrapped

in a blanket of nightmares

I pass through all the broken

windows of the world

with an appetite for cake...

"Sight and Singing"

Written By

Emily K. Michael

I enter the large conference room, holding Kerry's elbow. High ceilings and bare floors amplify the sound of our students' voices as we find seats at the long folding tables. Most of our students are sitting at the table in front, so we choose seats behind them. For the next six hours, we will occupy cold, metal folding chairs - and mine makes an unnecessary amount of noise when I draw it away from the table. It scrapes along the floor, the sound intensified by the chair's hollow legs.

"The Crossing" and "Wind Gifts"

Written By

Mark Cornell

You no longer want to hold my hand

perched upon a new chapter of your life,

Beaming as you make your stand

you cross the street towards the other side...

"Cutting"

Written By

Stacye Cline-Robinson

I stand here cutting as I dye, dyeing as I cut. My goddaughter Jade sits with her wheelchair tilted back, her head wedged between the arms of the salon sink as I circle behind her. Turning on the faucet and placing her head under the rush of warm water, rinsing Jade’s hair free of bleach, I hope she doesn’t hear us. Her mom Liz and I make small talk— bawdy talk of bodies and waking from daydreams too rough for her ears. It isn’t that she can’t understand the games people play when they no longer believe in love. The way Jade’s eyes catch light, never staying the same shade of green-flecked brown or brown-flecked green and their quick expressiveness let me know she understands too much about the aftermath of love.

"Define Me" and "Decay"

Written By

Jenna-Nichole Conrad

Poetry is writ;

Soft as the sky, static-charged with

Independent emotions dancing livewire steps

Through sunset slick veins...

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