
Breath & Shadow
Fall 2016
Volume 13, Issue 4
"Time and Music"
Written By
Dorothy Baker
Nearly engulfed in six foot tall goldenrod, the shed, empty but for a ping pong table and
a nation of spiders, bides its remaining time.
Arthritic joists, porous sills like aging bones, eroding under the weight of eighty winters, feebly, precariously, support the tarp-covered roof...
"My Cup Runneth Over-Not"
Written By
Anakalia
Occasionally, I check out the selection of vessels at a drugstore for one large enough to collect and transport radioactive waste. Recycled Styrofoam cups or hot tea containers from McDonalds can be used, though a child proof drinking cup with a smooth lip works better to prevent spillage when peeing in a cup.
"Willowbrook"
Written By
Jessica Goody
You were my great-uncle, or would have been,
if such familial labels applied to one long-dead
and never met. After you were born, you were
placed in an asylum for crippled rag dolls...
"Black Kripple" and "An Interview with Leroy Moore"
Written By
Erika Jahneke
There is a lot written today in Movement circles, any movement really, about intersectionality and the way different forms of oppression, such as racism, sexism, and ableism overlap. You can ponder these concepts or watch them in action by reading Leroy Franklin Moore Jr.’s "Black Kripple Delivers Music and Lyrics".
"The Boy"
Written By
Edward M. Turner
William poured sugar in his coffee and stirred it thoughtfully.
Tom glanced at him. "How was your weekend?"
William gave a bleak smile. "Don't ask." He sipped his coffee. "We had a lousy time. Didn't pull into our driveway until two this morning."
"Tired, huh?"
"Grandma's Closet"
Written By
Jennifer Gifford
I remember how it felt to disappear
Into the past of grandma’s closet.
My dressing room.
The smell of White Linen
Hanging thick in the air.
Slipping on arm length gloves, faded with age...
"At The Expense of Joy: Human Rights Violations Against Human Beings With Autism via Applied Behavioral Analysis"
Written By
Dr. Kelly Levinstein
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), a multi-billion dollar cottage industry in the United States, is based on the work of Dr. O. Ivar Lovaas, who borrowed the principles from his experiments attempting to cure feminized boys at risk of homosexuality (Rekers & Lovaas, 1974) and the accompanying aversive of electric shock and corporal punishment. Lovaas used the rationale that homosexual behavior was (in California at the time) illegal. Moreover, he also shared the same fundamentalist Christian values as the parents who brought their children in for alleviation of feminine symptomology and possible homosexuality.
"Budding"
Written By
Michelle Zhuang
The garden of my body is growing. My sister tells me, while we are perusing the Walmart greenhouse, that I need a little color on me. She chooses violets when I really want sunflowers, batting my hand away when I reach for the small labeled packet. “But then how would you walk?” she asks, laughing as she presses each small seed into the freshly packed dirt of my hand.
"Before the Diagnosis", "t6", and "Love Letters Series Poem V"
Written By
Heather Ace Ratcliff
i used to think that the
iron scaffolding of my ribcage
was strong enough to guard
the bruised filigree of my ruby heart -
until i heard the buzzing prescience
and learned how it felt when the tubercle slipped from the vertebrae and i was exposed.
"Three Word Memoir"
Written By
Izabela Jeremus
Addiction takes lives. First, it empowers. Answers, you think. All depression, gone. Mental illness, handled. I can stop. You tell yourself. You believe it. Addiction lies, though. It'll take control. Eat you alive. Just one more. The addiction lie.
"The Girl" and "After The Long Dry Spell, New Dress"
Written By
Rachael Z. Ikins
Where is the laughing naked girl
draped on a log spontaneous spring
woods and trillium all around her for her lover's camera?
Who is this woman hungry just to see?