Pangyrus Literary Magazine

From "Our Town Becomes a Number" by Alice Haines, published alongside "March Mud Season Rap": "8 fell while rolling 14-pound balls at 10 white pins. The deaf still weep for 4, who were tossing 6-inch bags through 6-inch holes...." Ph: Sean Foster, unsplash, CC 2.0.

New short story "Friedman at the Reins" by Mathew Goldberg: "'Pain comes in the dark,' his mother would say. 'It comes in the dark and we call it wisdom, but it is pain.' As a child, he imagined that his mother’s black bile allowed her to walk through walls." Ph:Sander Crombach

From the essay "Backtalk" by Anne Kenner: “You have a condition,” my father said when I called to complain. “You need to rest.” “Dad,” I explained, “I have school.” “What you have,” he answered, “is a scoliosis.” pangyrus.com/essay-memoir/b… Ph: Pawel Czerwinski, unsplash, CC 2.0.

From the poem "In Lieu of Flowers" by Harry Gordon: "Why attend your ex-wife’s funeral when the in-laws will only glare at you as if you’d killed her instead of the Winstons? I quit smoking about the time the fire..." Ph: Mayron Oliveira, unsplash, CC 2.0.

"Ruth" by Donnie Moreland, published alongside "Cigna": "Baby Ruth Sweet Ruth, girl where did you go New York bound from the sleepy, Carolina magnolia’s that spare petals like angel wings when you need to make a decision where to land by and by..." Ph: Steve Johnson on pexels.

From the poem "Debt Portfolio" by Jana-Lee Germaine: "John Louis slipped me cash every month, enough to pay some bills and start a separate bank account. You tight? he’d ask, bumping a stack of brand-new twenties across his pickup’s leather seat..." Ph: Ryan Porter, unsplash

From our newest column Voices in the Classroom by columnist Marium Zahra, "Addressing the Mental Health Crisis": "At first it sounded like a clear win: Two extra weeks of spring break in the second semester of my 6th-grade year? Amazing...." Ph: Andrew Neel, Unsplash, CC 2.0.

New fiction story "The Puma Way" by Susan Fox: For the past few months Brian has been on a journey, a quest, a search; whatever it is, Gennie doesn’t get it. “Don’t go all Zen on me,” she said to him one evening, laughing to try to make light of it. Ph: Jerm Gonzalo on pexels

New poem "Where Are You From?" by Tran Tran: "In my mother tongue, to miss sounds the same as to remember. I dare not ask my mother, Mẹ nhớ ngoại không? To miss what was means to remember what wasn’t...." Ph: Johannes Plenio, pexels, CC 2.0. #poetry#writing#pangyrus

From the poem "A Gutting" by Navila Nahid: "Womb slabs a surgical tray and my heart— a ship of Thesus ripples outside its body...." Read the full poem on pangyrus.com/poetry/a-gutti… Ph: Pawel Czerwinski, unsplash, CC 2.0. #poetry#literature#writing#poets

New poem "Articulation" by Kevin McLellan: "paid extra for the jade tree in terra cotta with a blanket of stones because as a child:..." pangyrus.com/poetry/articul… Ph: Alexander Grey, unsplash, CC 2.0.

From "fallen angels in the west branch narraguagus" by Suzanne S. Rancourt: "translucent dream or memory – aquarium glass she slid snug against its chilled pane eased osmotically through a viscous veil." Ph: Nikunj Singh, unsplash, CC 2.0.

From "sticky on the C train" by Eris Sker: "into the park and out the bowels in a single drooping summer eve–swallow wordings & all worldly light! – whose yells are timely interruptions of each phoneme yell fuse! intent! manifestation! coda!" Ph: Harry Gillen, unsplash, CC 2.0.

New fiction piece "Editors in Chief" by Angela Townsend: "Mrs. Fehr liked me, which led to the unprecedented. 'Then I’ll compromise.' 'Really?' 'Yes. I just need you to do one thing.' 'Okay.' 'Dumb it down.'" Ph: Felipe Furtado, unsplash, CC 2.0.

From "The Unevacuated" by George Witte: "It’s over anyway so fuck it, right? I mean, who cares about bromeliads, or dace, or honeybees beset by mites when apex predators are dropping dead like flies from recontaminated air...." Ph: Ricardo Gomez Angel, unsplash, CC 2.0.

"American Sonnet: Sometimes, Overseas" by Joanna Grant: "An unmarried Western woman, working overseas— I often get asked, 'Where is your husband?' 'How many babies?' After explaining never had any babies, not really likely to now..." Ph: Brandon Day, unsplash, CC 2.0.

From "extinct: Nesopupa turtoni" by Nathaniel Dolton-Thornton: "with no one to praise your punctuality, you sleep in the world lets you go, scrawls a note resumes its conference call" Read the full poem on pangyrus.com/poetry/extinct… Image: Buddha Elemental 3D on unsplash, CC 2.0.

New poem "Proof by Contradiction" by Ali MacLeod: "You, though — You could show up first to every party; You could arrive to work at 4 AM. You could sit down for Christmas dinner on Halloween and still..." Image: Ir Solyanaya on pexels, CC 2.0. #poetry#pangyrus

From the memoir "Telling Secrets" by Bethany Wiersma: Dad is sitting on the steps behind her — he’s already rehearsed his role. He does a lot of nodding and clasping his hands, and sometimes he chirps out a shaky, “we love you very much.” Ph: Polina Tankilevitch, pexels, CC 2.0

Poem "Undine Rising From The Waters" by Kelle Groom, published alonside poem "Lyonia": It’s said she needs a man, to marry, To have a soul, but what a load Of crap–she’s an element a water Spirit which means soul in fact She is soul... Ph: James Gaither, flickr CC 2.0