Portals 2025 Edition

PORTALS

2025

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Editors

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EDITOR’S NOTE

for the d e r u t a fe e b o Submit t agazine M ls a t r o P t x e n publication!

Open Submissions!

HTTPS://CFCC.EDU/PORTALS/

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

POETRY Not a Breakup Poem Omelas Liner Notes on a Real Frank Turner Playlist A Nuclear Accident Op. 37 No. 1 Game in the Oak Acoustics Field of View The Quiet After Planner Connections Eagerness in the Heart of Empathy Nature Channel

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FICTION Felinemenomenon I Go Back to Covil Estates How to Live with the Worm Injustice in the Rainy City Death in the Mangrove Forest Between Outside Saved by the Bell Last Dance The Men Nothing

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NONFICTION A Letter to My Best Friend Cold Turkey and Indecision Two Different Countries and Me Everything Leaves Eventually Sa-waat-dii krap to Thailand

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ART Moore, Kyle

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Wanderings England Esclavo The Magic of Learning Feathers Wanderings Italy Morena

PORTALS LITERARY JOURNAL

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Art TITLE

Wanderings England

AUTHOR

Suzanne Voigt

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Art TITLE

Esclavo

AUTHOR

Kristin Zafar

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Poetry

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Art TITLE

The Magic of Learning

AUTHOR

Bronwyn Smith

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction I Go Back to Covil Estates

By Kristen Peacock (An Ode to I Go Back to Berryman’s by Vincent Scarpa)

On all of the perfectly manicured lawns with their identical dark green mailboxes, in homes of varying neutral colors, if you peer through the front lace curtains long enough, I can see Mrs. Dotty cooking for one with her Bible opened and ready at the table, her leathery skin and matching blue sweatsuit bringing with it the sweet scent of freshly baked sticky buns, the Bradford family with eyes unfocused, lukewarm microwave meatloaf on trays, TV laughter echoing off the walls filled with painful picture frame reminders of dead mother and wife, the palpable escape of father and daughter yet again in a living room that is anything but, and in still another house is Bob, a thin and grey bearded man, with eyes like the brown bottles of yeast he continues to empty, sunken into a recliner and ready to watch the TV screen until he passes out; while in our unassuming house, an ornate centerpiece is left abandoned and collecting dust at the dining room table, silver untouched yet tarnishing, the dead hydrangeas the only evidence that warmth once flourished here, my dazed mother left to make dinner, eyes constantly shifting to the door, my father coming home from a long shift full of sweat, the smell of perfume, and the faint aroma of leftover relations stuck to his coveralls, a subsequent cacophony of ice rattling in a glass and a child proof pill bottle popping open, the wandering eyes of my brother left alone to play with me, so I run to the pool, despite the awareness of eyes watching me jump, grateful for the escape to the bottom where there is no eyes and no sounds, only the catching and releasing of self-launched torpedoes straight to the bottom of the bliss, emerging into the eventuality of tomorrow’s Sunday, all of us in tow for our once weekly family time to attend a sermon where a preacher yells of The Absolute Evil of Adulterers! and every week as he stands in the pulpit, he buzzes on about the same themes of respect and obedience and Godliness, but a luncheon of sham smiles and handshakes later our family goes home with thoughts of shame and sex and silent obedience swirling in the stifling car, my body turned to the window to avoid the ever eager eyes of my brother planning and watching, the shopping malls and elementary school I attend rolling past, a brief intermission of escape before we are back to the wrought iron gates, the same manicured lawns and homes in approved tones, except in the yard next to our family driveway now there is Bob stumbling around his yard, his red-faced grinning in sharp contrast to his pale body exposed and half clothed in a t-shirt, a drink in one hand and himself in the other,

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Art TITLE

Feathers

AUTHOR

Andrew Loehrs

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction Last Dance

By Lindsay Scully

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Fiction

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Art TITLE

Wanderings Italy

AUTHOR

Suzanne Voigt

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Art TITLE

Morena

AUTHOR

Kristin Zafar

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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Nonfiction

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‌g ‌ a ‌a l‌ s‌ ‌M ‌ z‌ i‌ n ‌ a ‌ t ‌ r ‌ o P a collection of ‌ e‌ ‌

student writers and artists, published by Cape Fear Community College 411 North Front Street Wilmington, NC 28401