Composite Body

By Tony Tulathimutte
     This photo—it has no title, though now I’ll call it what Lorraine’s father Steve once called me, “Spider”. Because of your long, skinny legs, he’d explained, as if I didn’t already get it. The photo is of a bare-limbed cherry tree and a little house, and both are out of focus. In the [...]

The Room Without Windows

By Ly Chheng
1
     Prior to Tenkuu’s birth, the most famous fortune teller in all of Kanagawa prefecture told Tenkuu’s mother that Tenkuu would die an early death. Shiho, unconvinced, sought a second opinion, then a third, a fourth, and a fifth. It was unanimous, however, for all five men had bet against her unborn [...]

Editorial Statement

Two hundred million years ago, tectonic conflict forced portions of the Pacific sea floor crust to the surface. Tacked on to present-day Utah and Arizona like a geological afterthought, California has never quite fit in. While states to the East were embroiled in wars of independence and slavery, California was oblivious, independent—free.
It is no accident [...]

Draw (1)

– George Xander Morris
Download “Draw (1)” as a PDF

When the Going Gets Tough

By Gabriel Winant
In the world of politics, masculinity has gone rabid. Machista strongmen flex their muscles on a world stage that increasingly resembles L.A.’s Muscle Beach. While Putin consolidates power in the name of order, Ahmadinejad rattles his scimitar at the corrupt West, Nigerian men threaten to stone to death Nigerian women, Orthodox Jews are [...]

Draw (5)

– George Xander Morris
Download “Draw (5)” as a PDF

No Chronologer

We’d leapt, then—joined a risk. We thought this winter
could act a clean edge to nick
our sass and lax. (Sequestered, we sharpen our angles
on one another.) Haul of
boxes, maps, spit-shine & crease—but scratching already
at the door of it a small blizzard
that we ignored, growing. We have ourselves for warmth
and some lamps for reading. Fluid drawn,
transferred, dispersed. [...]

Dilution

I have pictures of me at the water
pictures of me in a pose that I admire.
At the corners of my mirror
stand pictures of me by the water.
— Payam Cherchian
Download “Dilution” as a PDF

Touring the Erotic Museum

By Steven Tagle
If You Really Want To
Speeding down Hollywood Boulevard, I don’t even notice the museum, but my brother sticks his head out the window of my silver Volvo, maybe restless, maybe trying to sniff it out.  Just as we’re about to drive by, Jim says, “You wanna go in?”
“What?”
“The Erotic Museum,” he says.  “Wanna [...]

Draw (16)

– George Xander Morris
Download “Draw (16)” as a PDF