Issue 15

A month ago, my neighbor asked me to drive out to Antelope Valley to retrieve a skull he had loaned to a natural history replica supplier. He’s dying of cancer–my neighbor that is–and wants to put his affairs in order before he turns off the lights. The skull existed quietly in a blue metal box on the floorboard, the car’s air conditioning keeping me cool as the creosote and yucca palms sped past, and I don’t know whether I was dehydrated or over-caffeinated, but I found it hard to swallow all the way home. And that, brothers and sisters, brings us to our fifteenth issue, one inhabited by signs and signals, but whether to stop, slow, or hit the gas, well, that’s up to you.

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Édgar Omar Avilés: “Cloud”

Kit Armstrong: “The Searchers,” “Peony,” and “Molasses”

Kevin Chesser: “We Have People for That,” “By Our Infinite Powers Combined,” and “The Explorer”

Jennifer F.: “The Lighter”

Howie Good: “Submarine”

Dave Gregory: “An Ostentation of Peafowl”

Brigid Hannon: “This Isn’t English Class”

Cameron Haramia: “Garden in the City”

David Dodd Lee: “Drought” and “Movie Extra”

Carla Martin: “A Kaleidoscope of My Lover”

Chris Nielsen: “Oroville” and “Slow Burn”