Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Cardinal, Matt Dekonty

The Peregrine Review

Trudging forward into the dark,

the snow beneath my feet an

untouched canvas of potential.

Click Click Boom, Erin Mackenzie

The Peregrine Review

Click

Click

CLICK

You mash hard on the up arrow key of your laptop in order to make your dinosaur avatar jump over a patch of pixelated trees.

Click. Click. Around you, the airport buzzes. The voices of hundreds of people rushing around join together like wailing cicadas, distant, but constant.

Click. Click.

“I got you something.”

A Haiku About Strawberries, Nate Castellitto

The Peregrine Review

In garden patches

Earth’s tones acquaint achene

In all their splendor.

Iii, Amelia Markey

The Peregrine Review

A photo depicting blurred city lights, as if the camera was moving while the photo was taken. This is the third photo in a sequence.

The Power Of Rainbow Identities, Rosemary Jones

The Peregrine Review

A homemade photo album served as one of my first books. Within it, the story of my adoption, always recounted to me sitting on my mother’s or my father’s lap. This is you, all the way in China! And this is Mommy and Daddy and your older sister at the airport— we had to fly fourteen hours to go and get you and bring you home! I don’t think many kids have the privilege to say that one of the first stories their parents ever told them was their own. I suppose I should have felt special and empowered. But, …

Snow In April, Ellen Diehl

The Peregrine Review

how often does your heart push away

the very human impulse of sorrow?

a flurry of the unexpected

makes us numb

when the peppery cold that lies softly on our hearts

stings far more for its imperceptibility

than for its gentle defiance of what cannot be controlled

it is easier to lie down and collect the dust

of what once moved freely in joyous waves across the shoreline

than to brush off the cold

On The Train, Peyton Cassel

The Peregrine Review

comes rumbling out of the

earth, releasing small, white tufts

of dandelion fuzz as they are ripped

from their stalks. the force of the

Una Tarde De La Alhambra, Nathan Simms

The Peregrine Review

A photo showing the Alhambra and the forestry surrounding it on a nice day, with mountains and clouds in the background.

Home, Hannah Rauhut Wells

The Peregrine Review

Prose that begins:

It was always a quick turnaround. The Army has a funny habit of doing that (though my mother would disagree on the choice of adjective here). We’d stay in one place for a few years, usually no more than two, and then the Army would ship my dad off to his next duty station. We always went with him. Since I was born in Monterey Bay, California, my family had moved three times: first to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (two years), then Fort Hood, Texas (three years, where my brother was born, the longest time we’d ever lived …

Third Space, Courtney Kehler

The Peregrine Review

our minds are unkind to us sometimes

the weather is not always fair —

thunder rumbles and lightning flashes

wind whips around us, steals our breath

sheets of swirling rain obscure our sight

Masks, Janell Ryan

The Peregrine Review

Prose that begins:

You have never seen your face before. Faces, your mother said, are to be hidden. They are secret and ugly things, never to be shown even to yourself. For as long as you can remember,you have worn a mask. The first one you can remember was simple but ornate. Glossy and white, with thorny roses and vines carved into its moon surface. A flash of pink lips and star blue eyes were the only colour splashing your face then; your mother took a risk by allowing your lips to be seen by others.

I, Too, Sing America, Lydia Pebly

The Peregrine Review

I, too, sing America

I am the sister

They tell me I’m pretty smart

...for a girl

But I’m not strong,

They need a strong man to carry that

My Rib Cage Is A Home, Meg Banning

The Peregrine Review

I COULD MAKE THIS A CHARMING AND ELOQUENT POEM WHERE I CONFESS SWEET THINGS AND COMPARE YOU TO A BLOOMING FLOWER. I COULD CREATE LOVELY RHYTHM THAT WOULD MAKE YOUR PRETTY HEAD SPIN.

Reunion, Jack Houser

The Peregrine Review

Low, the path we walked behind the deciduous line of every

no

I told you.

My hands still stuck

with the memory of dried soil from planting this wall.

Star Struck, Aimee Kulp

The Peregrine Review

When the living room window beside her mother’s antique owl lamp shattered, she knew that the sun must be setting – and that she had forgotten to turn off the lamp before its glow escaped the boundary of her home. Another rock sailed through the window to her left, hitting the back of her leather armchair and rolling back to nudge the toe of her right shoe. With a sigh she reached down, took the rock in her hand, and began rubbing her thumb along the smooth surface. Tiptoeing through the broken glass, she made her way to the wall …

Our Last Night, Meg Banning

The Peregrine Review

our last night there is a steady rhythm to the dull humming of the engine. We sit in your old green car, waiting out the pouring rain. The window begin to fog, so i raise my hand to the cool glass and wipe the dew away. The echoes of yellow light from the porches along the street sneak in between raindrops.

Brick Wall, Aubrey Skoubye

The Peregrine Review

I used to be an open book,

blindly granting trust.

I’d gladly give away my heart,

to have it thrown out to the dust.

2020 Full Text Issue

The Peregrine Review

The Peregrine Review, Messiah University’s literary journal accepts poetry (50 lines or fewer), prose (10 pages, double-spaced, or fewer), and art/photography. We welcome submissions from all Messiah students, faculty, and staff.

FRONT MATTER

• Cover Art
• Peregrine Review Staff
• Table of Contents

CONTENTS

• The Buttercup 1
• Untitled 2
• My Hands 3
• Snow in April 4
• A Haiku About Strawberries 5
• Child’s Play 6
• In the Garden 7
• Growing alone 9
• Sunset 10
• I 11
• Little Monster 12
• What do the Mountains Say 13
• For the #Unfairnandlovely 14
• The Storms of Life 16
• No Ghost There 17
• Pink Lemonade 20 …

Untitled, Jenna Becker

The Peregrine Review

Photograph of pink flowers in a garden with Monarch butterflies.

For The #Unfairandlovely, Fatimah Jan

The Peregrine Review

It took me years to understand this:

The dark pigment of my skin is Exquisite,

matches the color of Dirt your people kick around,

the color of my Mother Earth -

the color of Natural.

No Ghost There, Nathan Simms

The Peregrine Review

It’s tiring.

Chasing ghosts is an exhausting and complicated pastime. I don’t recommend it. Ghosts are elusive, fading between spaces, continents, and epochs with little regard for your pursuit. Icriss-crossed the face of a new country for four months, tracking invisible footprints wherever I went. On a few occasions, I felt the ghost’s wind rustle past my sleeve.

Pink Lemonade, Lynnea Robinson

The Peregrine Review

I felt out in the darkness

but spoke four brave words

How’s the college life?

It made me want to squirm

Ii, Amelia Markey

The Peregrine Review

A photo of blurred city light, as if the camera was moving while the photo was taken. This is the second photo in a sequence.

I Believe In Beverages, Bethany Armistead

The Peregrine Review

I believe in beverages. When I was a baby, my father would dip his finger in his coffee and give me a little taste. My fondest memories of my mother are those where she is making tea. I believe that hot beverages often translate to love. Each morning my father gets up to make coffee for the two of us. He fills the coffee pot with more water now, and grinds up six tablespoons instead of three so that I can have a cup of my own. It is dark and silky smooth. Even on the days where I leave …

Blooms In The Wind, Maddie Miller

The Peregrine Review

I lay upon a grassy knoll and gaze.

I behold youthful blooms, so fresh, so new.

Like rainbows, blossoms sway in a soft daze,

whirl innocently with winds great and bold.

Crossing, Peyton Cassel

The Peregrine Review

the boy with the cherry-red, popsicle-stained mouth bends to

draw a wobbly line in the sand.

see this line? this side is for boys only.

I blink slowly at him. once. twice. I decide that his cherry-red,

popsicle-stained mouth is ugly.

In The Garden, Chloe Patti

The Peregrine Review

Luscious ground to frolic on.

Green wisps flattened by

shoes, small in size—

only five now.

Shells, Jacy Seltzer

The Peregrine Review

Down the street there was a shell of a house. One day builders came some ten years ago to create this masterpiece from scratch. My father asked who the house was for.

“Oh, some rich banker’s daughter,” they said.

Out of their hands they created a foundation mixed with sweat and the tears from many hours of hard labor.

Home Is Where The Guns Are, Molly Mckim

The Peregrine Review

Crack! I wake up startled, a sound ringing in my ears. I sit up and look about my room. What did I just hear? My heart races while I stand and walk into the hallway. Dad’s door is open, the room empty. I check the time and roll my eyes, relieved but annoyed. It’s 5 a.m. He’s out hunting behind the house. I look at my phone and squint at the notification from him saying to come outside and try to scare deer into his path to shoot. I type back, “No, I do not feel like leaving the …

Undone, Amelia Markey

The Peregrine Review

A photo of an artwork with words starting with,

"Last month

my own sense of

will

was awful

involved in

the pursuit

of

the nearest

little treasures"