Clicky

issue 30

Ask a Necromancer, by Amanda Downum

All the corpse relocations that I’ve been privy to happened at the request of the families, because they wanted to transfer the remains to a different resting place. In one instance, the remains were cremated after being entombed. In another, the deceased was transferred to a new casket—and a body bag, which was generously filled with powdered formaldehyde and odor neutralizers—and taken to the airport.

All the Things I Know About Ghosts, By Ofelia, Age 10, by Isabel Cañas

The frightening thing about Aunt Tae praying was that she never prayed, not anymore—not since Padilla flooded, she always said. Flooded. An absurd word. Flooded means that water moves, that it has to come from somewhere, and most unbelievably, that our town was once dry land. See, Padilla has been underwater for as long I’ve been alive, so that’s not the strangest thing about it.
The strangest thing is the ghosts.

Kagewani, by Betsy Aoki

When I pole my boat off the shoals I see her:wavering, rip-step, shadow of arms.I can pierce her with a thought.I trail her off my broad back, I drag her…

In the Forest of Talking Animals, by Makena Onjerika

The girl watches the forest taking over the street and changing buildings, people, and rubbish into trees, bushes, and animals. The world elongates, darkens, and gains shades of green, brown, and burnt orange. The girl is crouching on a heap of quarry stones near her older brother and his best friend, Sammy, who are trading insults in a game of mchogoano. Unaware that they are changing into trees, the boys rub their hands together, each giving the other maniacal grins, each proud of his scathing cleverness: “You are so black, when a stone is thrown at you, it goes back to the thrower to ask for a torch.”

Bathsheba’s Corsage, by Elena Sichrovsky

she’s a princess who romances thorns
wears necklaces of needle-sharp pearls
         plucked from her father’s brow
         strung on mother’s graying hair
      if you try to steal a kiss she will give
      you her lips plucked fresh from the stem