Fall 2017

PHOENIX

LITIRRR^ RRTS MRGRZINE

6' cekmg by Kobe Gentner

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Our Stephanie Poem Hinkle Insotioble hunger drives presumptuous thieves.

Poluko! Poluko, oil oF poul Rutobogo, mp rutabaga!

Thep hod such heolthp roots...

Moscato

Justin Muncloy

PorkujQv, late night or oorli^ morning, Onig her silhouette is visible ogoinst the distant city lights Rnd Point moonbeams.

She sujoys ever so slightly To the tune oP o Nick Cove number ploying From the cor's stereo: fl six-dollor bottle oP luine ot her side.

I sit on the hood, uuotching through the hoze OP one oP my very occosionol smokes.

Admiring.

She turns toiuords me.

Smiling os she liPts her mine To her lips, morm eyes on me As she drinks.

A sly smile ploys across my Poce; I don't even realize Nick Cove hos Stopped singing.

fl Camel Thfou6h the Eije oF a Needle Bailee lUilson Vou are q cigarette crushed under a boot Jesus said it Vou UUith your lungs, i^our demons Vou, crippled, crushed Vou, Forced douun, Jesus said, "suffer little children" Jesus said it find oil of the rots ond mroiths Sop Q prayer Today uuas all blue skies and hot sun Vou ore in the crevices Vou Vou ore osh ond I am here UUhere Are Vou Hiding?

Godless boy, chorcool-smeored A trouble-making hornet, smashed Bug on the uuindshield Lungs Vou ore in my lungs Dust storm boy Dust lungs Sometimes I uuish thot I uuos o child So thot someone might uuont me enough To steal me oujoy LUring my neck The rest of this poem is buried Someuuhere thot they cuill never find it

Milk Mouth So^t Jaui Koelnn Steiuort Tok0 m0 on onothor t00nog0 bus rid0 uuh0r0 ujo ploy hous0 ond you gift mo q nockloco of violots, string gropo bubblogum pop oil along mp collor

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onother picnic in tho bockpord in tho dork uuhoro I givo mpsolf to the ground to pou tok0 me to another

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inhere uue

stop until ofter the lost cpmbol crash after the sonctuorp Is bloated uuith silence after us.

5

Li(e Has a Habic of Changing â‚Źthon J Sexton On Leap Veors, the solstice is June 22nd.

I thought I hod missed it.

So I steeled myself, And uuent to o green loke.

I stepped through the rocky mud, And entered the murky uuoter UUithout Q life jacket.

I set out.

And uuQS soon out of breoth.

There uuos o knee-deep sandbar Holfiiioy ocross for me To cotch my breath.

I struggled on, Flooting on my bock often.

And finolly mode it to the other side. • I sot for OLuhile omong the reeds.

The breeze gently uuhistling by.

Afteruuords, I sold It ujos o beginning Of o uuhole neuj life, LUhere I uuos bold ond hardly home.

The only relaxing I uuould do uuould be on the for side Of onother odventure.

Preporing for the return trip.

The next doy my dod told me he uuos dying.

Rf^umentum Caleb Pittenger Sometimas I sit bi^ the ujindouj on tha top Floor oF tha librorg and uuotch paopla pass to and From the buildings on the louun. I close my eyes and try to think oF houu many there ore. Three hundred? fl thousond? (The number is inconceivable, really.) I open my eyes ogoin, and try to look closer ot the croLud. OFten, I uuotch the girl in the block bockpock Foil behind the rest oF the group. LUhen it's nice out, I imagine she's toking her time, soaking up the sun or Feeling the cool breeze pouring out oF the gaps betuueen the buildings. On darker days, I imagine she gets o phone coll From her Father; the Fomily dog hod another seizure, but he assures her she shouldn't luorry. Most doys (regordless oF the tueother) I question uuhy I uuotch ot oil. Maybe, I uuotch because it is in my observation that this group con exist.

Or, maybe, I uuotch bccouse I hove nothing better to do.

the ojcle Jai/ Merrell 1. before i con see it coming sometimes, 0 pole rider ogoinst the doiiin or Q shodouu at the corner of mi^ ei^e.

1 see its pockmarked face in the mirror, after that, it's oil sickening inevitobiliti^, the metomorphosis from "person" to "meat" os the future greys out ond the shodouu settles in

2. during

3. after i come bock to myself in pieces the kind still under your fridge from that gloss you dropped tuuo months ogo (idiot) i om crusted to my bed like o scob— hideous, eoger to bleed— 0 shivering onimol in o human skin. the uuorld oround me is os olive os ever, os though to soy, “it's okoy, you're still here."

1 don't think it's meant to be cruel— but uue oil do things uue don't mean.

8

More Than Sovonnoh Smith I am more than o vioble source for sex, more thon iiihot I seem.

I eot, I live, I breath.

The Qir moves from lungs to atmosphere find from atmosphere to lungs like oni^ other.

There's o pull in the belly and o tear in the heart, R kiss for the never taken, Rnd a blush for the olujoys present.

Glimpses, Glimpses to the mild blue yonder mork the fears and point the skies, Glimpses kiss the lips ond fill the soul, Glimpses offer minds of change and lands of heortbreok.

But I am more thon tmo breasts, clitoris, ond egg.

I am thought, lecture, ond body.

I move mith tides ond erupt mith stors. for one to hold meekly in one's bond, For one to grasp but o mhiff.

For I am meek and mholly, for I am shout mithin the calm undestroyed night. m for you look to me os Mother.

Sister.

UUife.

Doughter.

Niece.

Female.

UUomon.

Rnd you gaze upon my beauty, Rs if this mere to speak softly my name.

Breathe me, consume me, For I om cuomon uuoiting to burn.

But remember thot I om more than vioble sex and configured ports, I om uuomon uuith uuorm blood and pounding heort.

Deep is mp pull and existent ore m^ scors.

I om Luomon UUoiting for the release of o time uuhen Vioble sex and configured ports do not moke up the letters of mi^ nome.

I om liiomon Peering blind through the lens of time.

Come find me.

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14

The Train Nok Taken Noncv Truett ULlhot if i^ou hod stepped across the line On that colorless day So mony yeors ogo?

Rt tujenty, he sold, "Come ujith me.�

Vou ujere not his.

The hordest line never crossed UUos getting in the cor Like on obedient child Letting him go.

He Luould dry the plates fl porcelain platter from your mother That uuould later burn in fire thot took the house.

On those ujinter nights Vou loved him uuhen He LUOS not yours.

UUhen he finolly returned, you hod married.

ULIords hung like fifty yeors locked RIong o line in evening ritual.

Ploced dishes neot inside o cupboord.

Vour bonds inside his heart.

Not knoLuing longuoge for desire Rt seventeen, you dreamt of plums.

The times he circled bock on bikes To talk you up or douun o hill.

Sleeping atop o frozen field in upstote Neuj Vork.

Cyes, stors, proyers Rll you ever uuonted UJos to follouj your heort Inside of him This golden threod unroveled.

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fin Uncertain Conversation Caleb Pittenger FI: (Speaking quicker chon bePore) find here's uuhere uje're getting ofP-trock, because I uiauld orgue that oihen something is literally true, it hos less pouuer then something thot is Pigurotivelq, or mythicollv, true. Literol truth, you see, is true in a moment ujhile Figurotive truth is true in every moment.

I mould even soy therein lies the difference betmeen mhot is true ond mhot is Truth. I'll osk you this, mhots more pomerful? That the story of Genesis is the literol transcript of creotion, o step-by-step instruction on morld building, or that - in Q morld filled mith gods mho creote through onger, violence, ond deoth - there exists o god mho shoped the eorth mith o mhisper? fl morld mhere me ore not sieves or bostords, but children, monderfully creoted in his imoge. So in asking mhether or not something octuolly happened, you ore oireody fundomentolly lost.

B:(Rnnoyed, nom thot he hos to osk ogoin) Look, ore you sleeping mith my sister or not? .

19

Dirtij Heaven

Monica Brosheors

lilhen she cloiued her uuov out of the brain fog thot engulfed her afternoon nop, her parents uuere gone.

"Moma? Po?" She uuos met uuith silence ond the eventuol foint crook of a nearby tree frog. The hut, almost entirely consumed uuith the fot, reoching fingers of kudzu ond moss, uuos empty. She kneuu her porents must be out uuorking. They cought snakes for o church thot procticed serpent handling on the other side of the mountain. They hod olreody met their snake quoto for the month. This trip LUOS more for the thrill of the hunt. Pipet hod never been to the Pleasant Tobernocle of the Redeemer, but she uuos once ollouued

This trip ujqs more For the thrill of the hunt. to go uuith her porents to cotch the snakes.

She troced her thumb ocross tuuo foded pink dots on the hollouu of her left onkle thot

uuere the color of cheuued bubblegum. Her parents oluuoys left right before sunset uuhen the venomous creotures begon to seep out of the cool coves and deod lumber in search of some rotund mouse or bird. The shodouus that stretched ocross the hut uuere grouuing thicker. The sun uuos sinking uuith ropidity, so she begon to search for her cutstick. After suueeping her bruised eyes ocross the small oreo, she reolized it uuos resting beside the uuicker rug on uuhich she slept. She scooped the knife uuith her tolon-like fingers. She bounced the knife in her hond, odmiring its blue handle coked in rust, and she uuos out of the hut ond emborking up thot fomilior path before onother minute hod the chance to poss. She oluuoys took her knife uuhen she exited the constricting boundaries of the hut, but thot doy felt different. Maybe it uuos the humidity thot mode the air feel like o bouul of congealed grits, or moybe it uuos becouse the outline of the full moon uuos olreody surfacing through the pastel sky. Piper hod o rotten feeling in her gut, ond leoving the cromped tomb of her home could only help.

ULIhen she reoched the jutting tooth of limestone thot served os her lookout, the crystolline stors uuere beginning to peek through thot lovender sheet, ond the crickets uuere screoming uuith their summer ecstosy someuuhere uuithin the dense uuood, but something else held Piper's ottention. The lond thot rested belouu her hoven reminded her of the constellations obove. The soft glouu of the streetlights ond businesses uuere like o tangible goloxy, only better. There uuere red ond green lights, violet, and thot boring, sleepy river peorl color, the some os the

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clos0r, looking for brouun lights, ond sh0 Luondorod ujhy th0r0 Luoron't ony lights that floshod in hor fovorito color. Th0 city 0V0n hod its oiun vorsion of tho moon, but sho thought this on0 uuQS much prottior. It didn't look Iik0 o big oyoboll trying to spy on your drooms. It lookod liko o boll composod of sh00ts of glossod mico. Sho romomberod th0 pastor collod it tho "sun spoor". Ho hod dinnor in tho boll ovory Thursday, and ho hod collod it thot onco.

UUhon sho thought of hor poronts and thoso holy roptilos, sho uuontod to bury horsolf do0p in tho mountain silt ond sloop intortuuinod uuith tho cool ond crumbling oorth. Tho ground bonooth hor mould bo porfoct for o sholtor omoy from hor poronts, but sho didn't omn o shovol ond memo ond po mould bo bock to tho hut soon. Thoy mould find hor. Sho sottlod for scooping o doposit of tho mud and smooring it ocross hor polo foco, nibbling ot tho hord bits thot romoinod omboddod in hor polm. Sho thought of tho dirt os tho troos' momo, ond

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if sho oto thoir momo, sho mould soon tomor obovo tho oaks and pinos that cloggod tho mountoinsido.

Sho could bo oblo to soo tho city in its ontiroty thon. â‚Źvon bottor, sho could molk thoro and loovo this ocornlittorod prison bohind hor. find sho roolly likod tho tosto. Sho foostod on tho minorols of tho flppolochions ot loost onco o doy.

Momo ond Po don't eat mud but thei^ 're short tike a bug and / could squish 'em. But / ujon't, I'll be careful. Sho hoord o rustling in tho shrubbory bohind hor.

Sho spun oround. Tho blodo mos mioldod, ond sho mos porchod on hor lookout, oyoing tho odgo of tho forost. fl girl tumblod out of tho pino thickot and shriokod ot tho viom of Pipor, Pipor lookod ot hor guost. Sho mos potito liko Pipor ond mos odornod mith brightly colorod ploid shorts ond o slightly tottorod pink shirt mith o small inky patch of blood sooping through. Tho girl mos frozon ond rofusod to drom hor oyos omoy from tho knifo. Finolly, tho girl spoko.

"I nood holp." Hor voico mos mook, ond it soundod os if most of its strongth hod boon oxtroctod through sobbing. Pipor jumpod domn from tho stock of rocks sho hod boon sitting on ond molkod to tho girl. Sho stood diroctly in front of tho girl ond roisod tho knifo. Tho girl gospod. Pipor pushod tho blodo bock into tho hondio and droppod it. Tho thud mos mufflod by tho spongoy ground.

"UUhot's yor nomo?" Pipor oskod os sho grabbed tho girl's arm.

''Uh...rm Izzio. Couldjo lot go of my orm.

pleose?" Piper ignored her protest ond smelled her orm. It uuos smooth ond smelled like cocoa butter and snieot.

ground, "Rnd nouu I'm muddy!" she sobbed.

Piper looked ot the girl os if she hod just odmitted to some socrilegious crime.

"Hey, uuhot'd yo do that for?" Izzie snotched

"And hey uuhot's uurong uuith mud?" Piper's possion caused her to unintentionolly spit on Izzie ot some point during her question, and she Luiped it off uuith indifference.

her arm oaioy.

"Ver broom," Piper ojhispered ojith oionder.

"Like the mud."

"Forget thot! Con you help me?"

Izzie laughed ond it sounded like the fot birds that sometimes nested in her hut. "No, I'm black."

Piper shook her heod fervently, her eyes ojide. “Broujn like the mud." Izzie's brouu tojisted ond she broke into laughter ogoin.

Her eyes uuere puffy, ond her eyelashes* ujere gleaming ujith tears, but she giggled.

"Vour eyes ore broojn," Izzie soid, "like the mud." Piper ogreed ujith o ujide smile, reveoling the empty lot of gum oihere her tuuo front boby teeth hod once been onchored. The heod of one tooth uuos trying to pierce through the oreo like pink toffy, but it still hod o ojhile until it ojon that fight.

"Vo soid yo need help?" Piper osked, the lost oiord stretched to sound like hey-elp.

Izzie's eyes dropped to the forest floor. Her bottom lip pooched out ond quivered. "I...I," her chest begon to heove. Her breothing became more sholloai.

"Did yo foil? â‚Źot one of them bod berries?

Snoke bit cho?" Her high-pitched voice uuould only continue to flood oiith enthusiasm until the truth uuos reveoled.

"I lost my porents," her confession ujos pushed out os one uuord and she fell to the

"Find yer porents? Sure. I knouu these uuoods like you prob'ly knouu books. LUhere uuos they lost?"

"See, uh..uuoit, uuhot's your nome?" Izzie surveyed Piper's eyes.

"Piper."

"Piper, uue uuere on o day trip, ond I souu some blockberries, ond I uuonted some, but they uuere so for ouuoy, ond by the time I picked some," her lip quivered once more ond tears uuere flooding the corners of her eyes, "Everybody uuos gone and thot uuos yester...yesterday," her voice uuovered ond she Luiped the snot on her tottered tee.

"Thot's okoy then, mighty fine, uue'll just uuolk to yer house, LUhere do yo live?"

Izzie monoged to get up uuithout foiling once more ond gripped Piper's shoulder for reossuronce. She lifted one trembling finger ond pointed. She pointed douun, doLUO, for into the distance, straight into that streetlight cove uuith billboords and littered streets and roin-uuoshed graffiti on the side of obondoned foctories thot uuere thick uuith the deod stench of productivity thot Piper hod no idea existed. Douun to thot porodise thot Piper craved to touch.

I "Doijun there. UJill you help me?� Izzie's voice tranquil, but her eyes uuere pleading.

UUQ5

Piper kept her eqes on the city belouu ond turned her heod to meet her neui friend's eyes at the rote of on oncient aiindrnill. The silence stretched on for much longer thon Izzie oiould hove preferred. Piper tcuisted her mouth os if in considerotion.

"Vep. I s'pose I con heyelp."

"Udhere ore uue?" Izzie asked os they crouched behind o tree.

"I gotta grab somethin' that's close to my home that'll help us so be reol, reol quiet just in cose my folks ore close," Piper uuhispered in her face, her breoth o tongy mixture of earth ond honey. "They don't like me goin' out 'n about too much on account of this reol bod snoke bite I got one time so this has gotto be o super secret." They uuould go eost. Thot uuos their safest bet.

Her parents oloioys hunted in the uuest uuhere the darkness first licks the oir cuith its block tongue, near the coves ond streams ond decrepit remnonts of the stone cottqges thot once held life ond cuormth.

"UUhot do you gotto get?" Izzie asked, ond her voice coused o smoll echo to bounce ocross the mountoinside.

"Ithie! Be quiet," Piper's tongue slapped ogoinst the empty spoce in her upper gum ond spittle fell on Izzie's foce. “It's Izzie. Izzzzzie. Z. Zzzzzz. Like zebro."

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"Thebro," Piper sold uuith perfect lucidity ond rose from the ground. "Be right bock ond hush."

She left Izzie to sit alone in the purple dusk that LUOS invoding the forest floor. The Luolk to the hut LUOS brief, ond she peered through o crock in the luoII to ensure that her porents uuere not inside before she mode her uuoy to the dockyard. If they hod returned ond noticed thot she uuos not in the hut uuhere they hod left her, she uuould be boiling in the dinner steuu right next to the skinned squirrel ond fresh gorden vegetobles. The hut uuos empty. She mode her uuoy through the tangled rouus of turnips ond onions ond shuffled behind the outhouse. Beneoth o pile of follen bronches ond Jogged stones LUOS her hidden collection of treosures she hod found during the mony times thot she hod snuck out uuhile her porents uuere ouuoy.

Things that uuere scottered throughout the mountain that she kneuu hod come from the city because her porents never produced them from nature. Dented soda cons uuith pole ink foded from time ond uueother: shords of on amber colored beer bottle; o poir of sunglosses uuith leopard print on the frome and light scrotches etched into the lenses: ond resting otop on eyeless china doll uuos the object thot she hod been seorching for: o brochure uuith o mop of the city belouu, one uuith the corner of the first poge folded and glued douun uuith o holfsucked peppermint, spit out by some long gone city slicker uuho decided thot hiking ond condy uuere o bod mix. She gripped the uuilted poges and smiled thot portiolly toothless grin in triumph of finding her most important treasure uuhen she heard the shrill creak of the door of her hut suuing open.

"Piperl" her fother bellouued. Ice raced through her veins and her hold on the brochure tightened. She uuos frozen.

"Pipeyl" her mother follouued, sounding more

inconvenienced than anything.

"Piper!" Her father slommed his meaty foot to the floor. His hoorse voice erupted from his tree trunk neck. "Thot little shit," he muttered.

His footsteps uuere like thunder ond they Luere grouuing closer. He ujos uuolking to the bock port of the hut; he uuould ujolk his short but stout body right through the garden ond tromple momo's plump tomotoes to a uuotery pulp, grob her by her motted hair and drop her in the boiling aioter. Lilith thot thought.

Piper ron to Izzie, ron until her lungs ond heort seemed to merge in one struggled rhythm.

'Tma cornin'," her father promised to the empty oir, ond they fled to the east. fls they ran, the concept of time melted oujoy like sop softened by the September sun, but they eventuolly could no longer hear Piper's dod suuear ond threoten. They begon to ujonder if he hod ever really even left the hut or if he continued pacing uuith his mossive legs across their sogging porch, screaming into the chasm uuith undenioble desperotion. Izzie stopped uuhen she uuos positive that the oreo uuos cleor of ony other humons ond gripped her knees. Her chest heoved. Piper uuotched her neuu friend attempting to catch her breath, and oil

“Go," Piper dug her skeletol fingers in Izzie's orms and gasped for air, "Gotto go."

"I see ye!" The holler ujos distant ond most likely on empty threot to score Piper into sulking bock into the hut in surrender. "Oughto get bock here. Po just uuonts some sugar," his voice uuos gritty, ond it sounded os if he hod tried to suuollouu o heorty hondful of cheop coffee beons.

Izzie scrambled to her feet and met Piper's eyes. They uuere uuide ond overflouuing uuith terror, but they hod only one option. Run.

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sh0 could imagine luqs her Pother's clubbed fingers uuropping around Izzie's ebony neck and his siuollen toes kicking o hole in her chest. They mere nom close to the bose of the mountoin. Izzie gripped her side ond

"UUhottyo think? Is it bod?" Izzie osked Piper os if she mos o troined medicol professionol ond sealed her eyelids until she received on

minced.

"I con fix thot, no problem. But con ye read o mop? UJe don't need it nom but me mill" Piper extended the arm holding the brochure to Izzie. "it's o mop of Ki-noxville"

"UJhot's omotter, yo con't breothe good?"

Piper osked.

"No, I hurt myself before I met you. Hurt myself big time," Izzie grooned, "I think the runnin' mode it morse."

"Lemme see," Piper soid ond Izzie reveoled her side, pierced mith thorns from o bush she hod fallen in. The majority of the oreo mos olreody cooted mith dried blood, but some ploces mere still met ond gleoming like stromberry Jelly. She considered her cuts.

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onsmer.

"Piper, the k is silent. It's pronounced Knoxville." Piper ignored Izzie's guide to pronunciotion ond reoched behind her.

She picked o hondful of brood leoves thot mere smoying on o lorn honging bronch ond shoveled them in her mouth. Izzie's face mos contorted in on expression of confusion, but Piper held one finger out, signaling her to moit. She begon to chem, ond o thin stream of green drool dribbled domn her chin. She took the pulverized mod of leaves

and sQlivQ and shoved them into Izzie's open uuound uuithout oiorning. She uurithed beneoth Piper's touch and yelped. ''6uuuu!'' Izzie shrieked but olloujed the emerald goop to remain in her sores.

"I heor ye, little pig," the voice luqs Point, but they hod no doubt thot it belonged to her Pother.

"LUe gotto run ond be quiet,� Piper murmured ond tried to imogine herselP omong the lights oP the city: houj Par ouuoy she aiill soon be.

"Fee, Pi, Po, Pum," her Pother song and his voice sounded like sand uuhen it rollecfdoLun the mountain ond reoched the bose oP tine volley. They could see the Plot land, uuith its Bermudo gross ond dandelions, expanding os they opprooched the bottom. They Luere so close, find just oPter thot stretch oP meodouu uuos the concrete Porest, uuith sprouting steel touuers ond minding ospholt troils. Piper ploced the mop in Izzie's bond ond they began sprinting domn that steep slope interrupted by jutting trunks and rocks.

"Vour dad...he seems...mean," Izzie's sentence mas sliced into Progments by the thudding oP her Peet ogoinst the soPt ground. She mos no longer holding her side.

"He's just proteckive," Piper exploined.

She olmost lost her Pooting. The eorth hod loosened o bit Prom o brieP summer shomer, but she mointoined her pace. She seemed to be in control, but she mos scared. So scared. And the earth seemed to hold o met, cool comport, like o chilled moshcloth placed ogoinst o Poce heated mith Pever. IP only she

She began to cheuj, and a thin stream of green drool dribbled down her chin. could pouse and press her brom ogoinst the cushiony soil and inhole the scent oP that smeet organic cocktoil oP absorbed roinmoter ond vegetotion.

"He...seems o little...more than—" Izzie's voice mos stolen Prom her os her Peet ment in the oir. fl patch oP eorth thot her Peet hod planted in hod disintegroted beneath her meight, ond she tumbled domn the remaining slope oP the mountain. There mos o muPPIed thud os her skull connected mith the ground. Dorkness engulPed her.

"Ithiel" Piper mhispered harshly ond shomered her limp body mith another dose oP solivo. She did not move.

"Pied Piper, Po's o'comin', don'tcho knom your mo is omP'lly morried?" his voice mos becoming cleorer, and in her mind, she could

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500 his tonn0d ond CQllous0d hand ujith th0 ghost of o scar bonooth his right pinhy fingor from on infoctod splintor long ogo rooching to t0or off hor foco. Vos, ho Luould toor off hor foc0 ond mount it on tho outsido of tho hut bocouso Mo lost tho oirooth sho modo for Christmas, ond hor frochlos uuoro doso onough to hollp borrios.

"Ithio!" sho hissod ogoin, and hor friond did not movo. Sho grippod hor ujrists ond droggod hor body doopor into tho moodouu, uuhoro tho gross sorvod os on Rmozonion curtoin. Pipor loy noxt to Izzio ond cuppod hor hands ovor hor oors. Hor oyos uuoro dosod. Hor father roochod tho odgo of tho moodouu sofoly ond continued spreading his incendiary rhetoric.

"Pipor, don'tcho hnouu snokos like moodouus?

Vos siroe Bob! And it's nighttime ond they eot little kids just like you so bo o good girl nouu ond come to Po." UJith that sentence, her body stiffened. He uuos lurking closer to tho girls than either of them roolizod, but he kept his eyes along the edge of the mountain. Surely his doughter uuould not uuont to go touuords the city. Not uuith the sins ond the drugs ond oil the people. All the noise ond oil the cars. Piper felt Izzie shift next to her ond pressed her bond ogoinst her lips. Her eyes opened ond met Piper's. LUe...have...to...run, she mouthed to Izzie. She responded uuith o nod. The thick gross oround them danced uuith their movements, and she uuos ofroid that Po mould notice. After o moment of chaotic shuffling, they mere on their feet ond increasing the distance betmeen them.

"Hey!" His short legs tried to follom them,

27

but he stumbled. ULIhen he struggled to

his fot feet, they mere neoring the other side of the meodom. They looped over the guardrail ond landed on o sidemolk. Piper gazed domn mith mide eyes. She monted to stroke her polm across the concrete and feel every shollom dimple in the hordened cement, but her father mos goining speed.

She continued to store ot the sidemolk.

Cvery crocked ridge hod o story, ond some rudimentary port of her realized that. Izzie grosped Piper's mrist ond yanked her ocross the crossmolk. The red bond accompanied by o rapid countdomn mos morning them to hurry, hurry, there ore other things to do other thon store ot the manufactured ground.

As they reached the other side of the rood, her fother bumbled over the guordroil. Piper didn't realize. At the corner of the rood there mos o lote-night cofe emitting o goldenbromn light. Cozy, bromn light. Her father inched closer to her. He stopped in the crossmolk.

"Pipey, get omoy from 'ot girl. Ver mo is morryin' herself sick," he pleoded. She continued to eye the cofe, but she finally forced herself to look ot Po. She glanced ot the bromn light once more ond then ot Po's foce. She realized horn hideous he mos. His face mos red from anger ond exercise, ond the lines engraved in his forehead looked like empty riverbeds. He looked like o dying beet. She remoined rigid.

"Pipey, ye don't gotto do it for me, do it for yer mo." She planted one bird-like foot on the ospholt.

Izzie let out o bloodcurdling shriek, ond Piper thought it mos because she mos leaving her.

"Moyhops I con come visit," she reossured

her Friend, but Izzie could not stop screoming.

The driver oF the semi-truch tried blaring his horn to Luorn the mon in the middle oF the rood, but it LiiQs too lote. The 1 8-iuheeler thundered doiun upon him, leaving uuhot looked like pomegranate juice and old gravp along the pellouj and block highujop. Izzie stood and screomed.

She screamed and screamed, but Piper could not hear her Friend losing her mind. Piper did not hear the metallic moons oF the brakes os the driver tried to stop, and she did not hear the eventual cries oF the crouuds oF people that began to trickle out oF the surrounding businesses to see uuhot oil the noise uuos. She could only see thot brouun light in the caFe, tLuinkling uuith thot eorthip glouu in the middle oF the blackness, beckoning her to come Forth to the dirt and devour, devour, devour.

His Face uios red From anger and exercise, and the lines engraved in his Forehead looked like empty riverbeds.

Colophon Our Gditoriol Staff is mode of Editor-in-Chief, Michoelo Roach: Cr0otive Director, Justin Heges; Copg Editor, Peyton UJhorleg: Art Editor, Lindsey Orrin: Fiction Editor, Ashley Baker,- Poetry Editor, Emme Morsholl: They ore supported by stoff members Collin Green and Lukas McCrory.

Our stoff is advised by the Interim Director of Student Medio, Jerry Bush. uuuuuu.utdoilybeocon.com/phoenix

fl special thanks to the Clarence Brotun Theatre for their support as an underiuriter for the Phoenix Literary Arts Magazine. uuuj uu.clarencebroyuntheQtr6.com

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