FINDING FEATHER BY NICOLE PEPAJ 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 136

.I drank the Kool-Aid hard, shoved it into my brain through a metal IV tube, rewired every neuron for this one relentless purpose. Being a Hotshot.

BADLANDS BY GEORGE WEHRFRITZ 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 136

Mason beheld the pre-dawn vista: Badlands to infinity.

Never met anyone who knows how to outline fulfillment.

ORANGE PARALLELOGRAM BY ELLEN RACHLIN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 136

Never met anyone who knows

how to outline fulfillment—

to assign boundary.

Consider border

of parallelogram

and orange joy.

STARTING AGAIN BY LINDSAY SMITH 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 136

We could be archaeologists together, together all the time, digging in the sand for ancient relics.

THE BIN BEHIND CAVANAUGH’S BY DESMA CAPUTO 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 137 PREVIEW

Now here she was. Stuck in a charity bin. What a fucking life.

GLUTTON BY ADEEB CHOWDHURY 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 137 PREVIEW

She slurps rice, lentils, and poached eggs out of a bowl. She grins at me with yolk and daal smeared across her lips, little vegetable bits dribbling out of her mouth.

HAIRCUT BY HARPER MAXWELL BRYAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 137 PREVIEW

I started cutting my own hair. I was tired of explaining to hairdressers who were scared to cut it too short. And as a laugh I dyed it to have “blue hair and pronouns”.

IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE FUN BY ZACH SWISS 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 42

Now nothing is working, her serve has gone limp, her movement is sluggish. As the games tick away panic clouds her judgment. She tries to make every serve an ace, every groundstroke a winner, most miss and the sense of panic rises, a self-defeating loop. 

NJ LINE NORTHEAST CORRIDOR BY COOPER SY BLUMENTHAL 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 68

My poem is personal and political, inspired by a reckoning with unadorned truth. I fight to stay optimistic about democracy. I try to have faith that the freedoms guaranteed to citizens in the US Constitution will survive the impact of so many solid hits.

BABY BY DESMA CAPUTO 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 135

Baby baby baby.

MOTORCYCLE BY CHRISTOPHER HEFFERNAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 134

What’s left of the motorcycle is in pieces in the front yard. The fork bent in an S and the front wheel caved in.

AN ANGEL ROSE INTO THE SKY BY SCOTT GARRIOTT 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 133

And here we stood. The land lying dark before us, AND AN ANGEL AROSE ON WINGS OF FIRE, TO SMITE THE FORCES OF DARKNESS.

CAN YOU REACH THE LEAVES? BY ALEXANDRIA GREEN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 131

Maybe I had a sixth sense, but I think I recognized his loneliness even before I saw it in myself.

MYSELF.TXT BY GORDAN STRUIĆ 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 131

Just a flicker in corrupted memory — a glitch inside a failed save.

TO THE FUTURE BY DESMA SHEERER 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 131

In a 200-square-foot efficiency apartment with neighbors who practice their drum circle until 2am every Saturday night.

I AM (WO)MAN BY SAMMY T ANDERSON 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 129

I am a man. Y chromosomes and body hair and angry brow, oooh ahh’n in locker rooms searing skin off my flesh with dirty BIC lighters.

WHAT GOOD IS LOVE BY EMILY GARCÍA 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 115

By the time it’s past midnight and we’ve gone through four bottles she’s asleep on the couch.

THE TRAGEDY OF THE ROSEMARKIE SEAL BY EMILY NEVES 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 103

I turn my back to the cave wall and look out. The slope of the hill and a little green bramble with a spray of yellow flowers partially obscures one side of the opening and on the other side I see the green-gray sea reaching to the horizon. I think I could live here if I had to. 

DISCO ELYSIUM: FIRST AS FARCE, THEN AS SALVATION BY URIEL HERSZAGE 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 124

They are transformed into the very thing that will save the world.

SINGLE MOMS HAVE COZY APARTMENTS BY SE DIAMOND 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 99

Since Jennifer’s mom is a biker and goes out a lot, Jennifer usually stays at her grandmother’s house where she can have a more stable childhood. I love sleeping over there because her grandma makes egg mcmuffins and lets us watch R-rated movies.

ON THE SUBWAY TO BROOKLYN BY RICHARD ABRAMSON 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 122

I smash the phone as hard as I can. The glass shatters and falls away in pieces, and the guts of the thing spill out. I smash it again and the case cracks, I smash it again and it folds in on itself, and I keep smashing it, over and over and over.

TASSELS BY SARAH JANE JUSTICE 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 118

one by one the tassels slip from hands that can’t remember when to not let go

INTERNAL VOICES BY TRAVIS COBB 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 81

Inside this Tower of Babel where nothing gets said. Put out what you need to speak. See if god is listening. 

DOWN THE ROAD A PIECE BY BERNIE HAFELI 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 11

She blew him a kiss. It was like he could see it rise above the smoke and neon and glide lazily toward the stage, a rose petal in the evening breeze. Momentarily he stopped strumming, reached up and caught it.

NO SMOEKING BY S LEE BENNETT 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 95

She did not exist in his head any more. Nor had she for years. The name did not anger him as it once did, but it still saddened him. And more than anything confused him. Collette was no longer a person he recognized himself to be.

THE FLATNESS OF HYPER-REALISM BY ALLISON RICHARDS 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 110

We viewers cannot paint perfect figures, so we don’t make art. We don’t have the time, so we don’t make art. We watch a video on TikTok and the end result looks more real than our goddamn reflection in the mirror, and so we don’t make art. 

BUKOWSKI BY CRISTINA CARTER 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 47

I want to eat the dirt from your grave. I want to find your words and spit them out.

PLAYLIST FOR THE WORST DAYS BY JAWNO OKHIULU 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 108

A mix of rhythm, funk, soul, and soapbox prophecy cut with love, grief, rage, and acceptance.

DEAD CAT BY MELVIN STERNE 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 96

What’s the most likely ending? What’s the worst-case scenario? What’s the best ending? There’s a billion potential endings. Pick one.

MACHINE GIRL BY REBECCA EGAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 96

I want a signal that screams I made it through. On my own. I found a way out. 

STEALING HOME BY KAY BONTEMPO 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 78

Two bell peppers, Muenster cheese. Cauliflower, a pack of Newports, Tampax. Martinelli’s apple juice. Paper towels two-ply. English Breakfast tea. Boil-in-a-bag rice, paper clips, ramen noodles. Maybe some ice cream if there was money left over. America’s Choice vanilla, eaten straight from the carton. It wouldn’t be bad. With an uncomfortable pop, he pulled out of her and lay beside her, breathing hard. It was 11.52pm. She wondered if the Shop’n’Save would even be open.