Scarlett Summers:

The air was warm
When we set out for the ocean waves
I’d slipped the cyanide into his drink
While he was jogging;
Hard work, no payoff.
And as I gripped the steering wheel,
I thought about the things
That they would say
And do
About the coffee shop girl whose lover had died
And I thought about the flowers
And the people who would bring them
And how they would say “that poor girl”
“that poor, lonely girl
Whose lover has died.”
And I smiled because
I couldn’t wait;
But as I gripped
The steering wheel
The yellow dashes on the road
Began to form
A single line
And I looked over at him;
His eyes furiously blink-blink-blinking
As he opened his mouth
And looked back at me
He struggled to breathe
As I struggled to see the road
And then to breathe as well
And suddenly
The car was upside down
And filled with gasps for life
And I thought to myself:
"Is there pity in Hell?"



Max Winters:

When I returned to the condo
She was outside the door
With my energy drink
And a beach bag
And a beautiful smile
And I began to feel bad
For pouring the bleach in her morning coffee
But later
In the car
Her smile is gone;
Fingers choking the steering wheel
And I remind myself
That it had to be done
She had to be put out of her misery
And even though she was my world
She had to leave ours
But suddenly
My train of thought was derailed
As my breaths became gasps
And my chest became an inferno
I looked over at her
But she was blurry
And then we were upside down
Our lungs now broken promises
And our eyes white lies
Built up and gone wrong
And I thought to myself:
“I hope she’ll be happy in Heaven.”

chipped china cups stained
with cherry red prints from your lip stick.
the way you swing your body languidly
through the wispy smoke
hanging in the air like a reunion of ghost;
always enchanted me so.
here the graves lie of all the lovers whose
hearts were severed by your gentle fingers
cutting out the sacred testimonies wedged
brightly in every heart.
they stained the earth,
for they had something
to give
but although your eyes open
with surprising brilliance,
how can anything you see
hold meaning?

did you know that it only takes one
deformed cell to give you cancer and
i sometimes want to scream in the middle of a lecture
because i smoked that one cigarette in october
and what if i have cancer
and i wasted all the autumns, winters, and springs
of my life as a robot of the american dream
taking classes and making grades
and earning letters on a page
and if i die too soon from cancer
everything i’ve accomplished
will fit on an 8x11 sheet of paper.

the people here are
static on the television
food with preservatives
plastic flowers.

f e b r u a r y
the month we all went mad
in parallel to the month of august
when we all pledged
right hand up, against our hearts, our chests

we are sane and strong and good

we all pledged
to stay well

six
months
later,
we toast to those people
those people who are unrecognizable, now, in the fog of the glass

they draw x’s and o’s with their polished nails
and blow desperate, sticky kisses
so we know that they were us
if only for a minute

our saints of the past
won’t cease ******* us demons,
when february has passed
they will be back

then we’ll blow fairy dust off our fingertips
& wake up
with ******* on the carpet.

even if i climbed to
the highest steeple of the highest church
prayers would not be able
to save you.