The Elk

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Fall 2018, Issues ♦
after “The White Horse” by Yasunari Kawabata In the low light of the gloaming he felt the pulse of the late evening in the cutting wind. It broke around the branches and tree trunks as it slid down the mountainside into the valley where he found himself standing, his knees aching.…
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Praxis

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Fall 2018, Issues ♦
The soil is blackened with years of the north farm’s manure. Speckled green lifts from the unseen             white flecks of lettuce             seed sown weeks earlier. Faith. Hope. Charity. The large words of religion          …
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The Tennessee Kid

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Summer 2018 ♦
From the book Freedom Fighters and Hell Raisers: A Gallery of Memorable Southerners by Hal Crowther. Copyright © 2018 by Hal Crowther. Reprinted by permission of Blair. Photographs can mislead, and sometimes conceal more than they reveal. But on occasion, usually in hindsight, a photograph radiates so much insight you need…
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Surface Level

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Summer 2018 ♦
It was Cecil Leemaster’s favorite time on the lake. He’d make his first excursion a few days after Thanksgiving, cruising his bass boat along the resurrected creek channel, following the route of old Highway 7. The late fall drawdown of Cedar Lake by the Corps of Engineers left the twelve mile Burgey’s…
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The Wrecker Lot

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Summer 2018 ♦
After the latest town wreck, my mother would drive us past the wrecker lot to see the twisted shapes of metal; bumpers and back ends deranged, sharp edges glinting; passenger doors cut away to remove the dying, the already dead—the bodies, we heard, sometimes burned beyond recognition. Evening quiet would…
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Being In Your Own Mind

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Summer 2018 ♦
When you’re with, say, your own kind, those toward whom you do not feel a need to prove yourself, to explain the context out of which you speak; being in your own mind’s ease is easier then. No fiddling to find the right word to convey belief in sacramental places…
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