The Literary Magazine of the Osterhout Free Library
Summer Dusk
David Athey
Summer dusk in Minnesota seemed like it would last until midnight, as if Alaska were just around the corner, and we often pretended that we were Eskimos and the small green lawn was open water between glaciers, and we sat in a wrecked canoe behind my dad’s shed, whispering about killer whales and killer storms and killer invaders from the unknown; and when Todd’s mom opened the door of their trailer to call him home, Continue reading “David Athey, Winter 2017”
Time
Lara Dolphin
After “Blessings” by Ronald Wallace
waits.
Some days I find myself
making my bed but
not having to lie in it.
I have a leg to stand on.
I have a penny
to my name.
All around me people
are asking what the country
can do for them,
sweating the small stuff,
Continue reading “Lara Dolphin, Winter 2017”
Something Just Above Nothing
Adam Gunther
There are two birds in the park,
I couldn’t tell you what kind,
so deliberately they sway back and forth on the branches
and they cackle and sing to one another, like a pair of old friends
And I,
I am left wondering:
what makes those birds Continue reading “Adam Gunther, Winter 2017”
The Metamorphosis
John Devers Jr.
Kafkaesque,
I woke up one day
To find I had
A protruding gut
And had aches from sleeping.
23 years of
Fast food, soda, and candy bars
Had finally caught up to me,
Who knew?
So I threw on shorts Continue reading “John Devers Jr., Winter 2017”
Chem Class
Zoë Sîobhan Howarth-Lowe
I giggle into my textbook
watching the chem teacher, intending science,
spell out whimsy
in ancient alchemical symbols
that I have recently learned to read.
I hold court
at back of the classroom,
Continue reading “Zoë Sîobhan Howarth-Lowe, Winter 2017”
Word Fountain 