YOU WERE BORN FREE BY a.p. “I think being adopted was a gift...” are words that I never NEVER would have imagined saying out loud. And certainly wouldn’t dare utter…
ADOPTEE-SENSE BY AUDREY B Adoptee life as a riddlelife played out from the middle all roads winding somewhererequiring you care, share, and stare intothe sun until full moon negotiates meteorshower,can face raining…
SAUCE & MUSK BY CARRIE ANNE TOCCI LISTEN TO THE AUTHOR READING: SauceSince the pandemic, instead of hand-washing my dishes, sometimes after dinner or later in the evening, after I…
DISTURBED ROOTS BY JULIE MAE PIGOTT I didn’t see her because dragonfly wings are translucent. I never looked for her, because during the day, phosphorescence isn’t visible to the naked…
WHAT DID YOU DO? BY REBECCA COHEN Trigger Warning: This story alludes to childhood sexual assault. In second grade a neighbor kid invited me over to show off how well…
LIMINAL SPACES BY FEMALE FLEMING The gap between what is and what could be is so wide and deep most cannot see the impact of not knowing one’s true identityexcept for those…
TikTok BY JESSIE HUNTER One evening last spring, I was flopped on the front room couch participating in my daily ritual of scrolling TikTok, when a filter came across my…
THE SMELL OF BONDING BY DANIELLE ORR LISTEN TO THE AUTHOR READING: As I tossed the quartered oranges, butter, and freshly squeezed orange juice into the Cuisinart for the orange…
SKILLED APATHY BY MARGARITA TROSHINA “Too emotional.”“Too challenging.”“Too much.”These key descriptors missing from my adoptee bio would go on to shape my personality, completely catching my parents off guard as…
UNTITLED BY MATTHEW SPENCER how does a fly get to be what it does?spent my whole life sortin’ thru this kind of fuzza dandelion of dreams floating thru infinite screamsunderwater naps calming all…