You’ve been winning the chalking and charcoal wars
against acne—so you hope your face is inert and in the clear
when Miz Beanson names CeeCee Irons as your lab partner.

Burgundy, the colour of cherries
we got at the Farmer’s market in Germany-
We paid for strawberries; the cherries came free.
They tasted sweeter.

“It was my little secret that I was reaming out this stupid jerk. I liked that feeling.” He could see a solitary tear make its way down her cheek. “Maybe I liked it too much. Now I can’t stop doing it.”

Every flower that catches sight of you
Begins to bloom against the season

Mauna walked around the park thrice before going back home. She stood in her balcony and watched families and bachelors lingering in theirs, scarcely meeting each other’s eyes. Dark and dry, the evening hung itself out like a roll of film, inverting everything into deep blue negatives.

Elder Steve was our neighbor – E.S. as we called him – and across the narrow street from our porch, he resided. We were 3 bro-migos in our mid-twenties, and E.S. was maybe 35 to 40 years our senior. A relic in the area like a rust covered beach cruiser, locked up and forgotten.

Heavy equipment, near River,
made a developer’s dream reality.
The woods’ edge a slope,
in brush, feeling stings, swatting bees.

Rosalia Scalia is the author of the story collection, Stumbling Toward Grace (Unsolicited Press 2021). Her second collection, […]

Mark is a rare book dealer by day and lives in London. He has reviewed books, written articles, […]

Jim Speese holds a PhD in post-WWII American Literature from Lehigh University and currently teaches writing at Albright […]