136 lede

un- by Charles Neadom

IT stretched out in the liquid warmth, extending its nearly developed legs against the fleshy wall of its confines. Rotating a mere few inches made all the difference in that bubble of a home. It felt a hand softly reciprocate its pressure from the outside, along with a steady and heavy melody of forced, learned breathing.
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Emma Heldman is “a writer who resides in Cincinnati, Ohio. [She] graduated from Ohio University [with a degree in] in Creative Writing. Here are [two of her poems]. Thanks so much for reading [her] work.”

Juxtaposed Heartbeats.

I tell myself I do
not know what it
feels like to be so dead and so
alive at the same
time and then remind myself of all of the times I feel exactly that.

Volunteering by Simon Pinkerton

On a Friday in September and with me having only a few hours left before I got to leave for the weekend and hand over to some poor sap, there was some sort of god awful musical thing that we all had to endure going on at Cherrywood.

Simeon Ben's Hot Pocket

Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Hydrogenated Angel Dust, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Less than 2% Yoga Mat, Salt), Water®, Reduced Fat Mozzarella Cheese Product (Modified Food Starch, Palmitate, Inoculated Yersinia Pestis Culture, Kallikrein 6 Enzyme, Salt, Part Skim & Nonfat Milk [both Drawn from our Queen’s Hundreds of Fully Adjustable for Fat Content Udders {Churned And Fermented by Chetniks of the Sixth Level of Pātāl}]), Pepperoni (Pork-Beef-Lama-Mule Mixture [Blood, Heart, Cheek, Lung, Liver, Lips, Eyes, Nodes, Hoof, Omasum, Tail, Oysters, Assorted Trim], Chicken, Carrier Pigeon, Modified Juvenile Koi, Periplaneta and Gryllidae Protein [all Humanely Housed in Communal Indoor Habitats and Relaxed with Nocturne French Horn Concertos, Message Therapy, and Nitrous Oxide before Processing {Pinky Swears}], Dextrose, Spices [JWH-018 through JWH-057], Salt, Lactic Acid Starter, Oleoresin of Ibogaine, Garlic Powder, Sodium Nitrite, BHA, DMT, NWA, BHT, GHB, PCP, OPP, YA, U-KNO, ME, MDA, LM, NOP, Lysergic and Citric Acid Diethylamide [to Protect Flavor]), Tomato Paste, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Less than 2% High Fructose Concentrate, Less than 1% Dehydrated Human Gallbladder, Partially Sentient Palm Kernel Oil, Seasoning (Bread Crumb, Phase 4 Advanced Corn Flour, Salt, Dextrose, Candida Yeast, Dehydrated & Delineated & Desensitized Garlic, Tomato Analog Powder, Spice [JWH-073 through JWH-123], Salt, Dextrose, Corn Maltodextrin, Naturally Conceivable Flavors), Yeast, Salt, Dough Conditioner (Calcium Sulfate, Salt, L-Cysteine [Poultry Feather, Human Hair {Fermented with E-Coli Mutation}], Garlic Powder, Tricalcium Phosphate, Buffo Alvarins Toad Enzyme [for Texture, Salivation & Salvation Properties]), Modified Food Starch, Seasoning (Synthetic Garlic Aura, Chili Powder, Adrenachrome, Monosodium Glutamate, Emulsified Pituitary, Endocrine & Pineal Gland, Some Salt, a Pinch of Scopolamine [Devil’s Breath {for Taste Compliance Properties}]), Flavor (Onion Extract, Soul of Minion, Anal Gland of Beaver, Fine China HCL), Sodium Chloride, Artificial Butter (Maltodextrin, Salt, Medium Chain Triglycerides, Synthetic Lactose Drawn from Utter No 266 [Brewed and Churned by Māntriks of the Seventh Level of Pātāl {Prepared In Accordance with Our Dark Lord’s Manual of Commandments & Standard Practices), a Dash More Salt, Whey, Soy Flour, Egg Whites, Soybean Oil.