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Front Matter

Manuscripts

Front matter includes: cover by Constance Forsyth, table of contents, and masthead.

Volume 79, Issue 1: Full Issue

Manuscripts

Full issue of the March 2014 issue of Manuscripts. Includes work by: Bob Barrick, Tommy O'Rourke, Earl Townsend, Cassidy Olson, Wesley Sexton, Ritz Davison, Ella Paul, Maggie Carey, Jillian Wanbaugh, Donald Bradley, and Katie Johnson.

Thumbnails, Katie Johnson

Manuscripts

The test group was comprised of thirty children chosen in infancy: all unwanted pregnancies that would have been wasted in public institutions far inferior to ours, without the extensive opportunities for education, for progress. The children required no mothers in our program. Had they ever wished to know their origins, they might have perused the metal file cabinet in which all of their files were kept, right down to the looping signatures of the women who had signed their lives to us. They never did; they were taught better, instructed that origins were of little consequence when compared with the …

Shadows, Donald Bradley

Manuscripts

Oh silent strength

dont vanish yet.

Reflection Of Fate, Ritz Davison

Manuscripts

Photograph of a reflection of a cemetery.

Written On A Wet Page., Tommy O'Rourke

Manuscripts

I could spell it out

in eyelashes but the invisible

boa constrictors that spring out

from your pupils

to strangle and decipher

every scribble are too busy shedding

their scales to sound out "delicate."

Reaching Lilly, Jillian Wanbaugh

Manuscripts

The trees were bare, twisting around themselves in a lifeless way. Some leaned, almost sagging with agony, while the rest remained erect, giving only the illusion of vigor. There were six of them; six black, dead trees forming a circle around her grave. Each wailed as the wind thrashed at their degenerate forms. Winter had eradicated autumn, mercilessly ravishing the land of all viability.

(No Title), Tommy O'Rourke

Manuscripts

Distilled crystals

in the fine print.

Roses, Maggie Carey

Manuscripts

Illustration of a woman with flower in her hair.

Meow, Maggie Carey

Manuscripts

Illustration of a woman in a hat and sunglasses wearing a cat shirt.

Inside Of Love, Maggie Carey

Manuscripts

Illustration of a woman in a blue shirt with bracelets.

Hat, Maggie Carey

Manuscripts

Illustration of a woman in a hat.

Antidepressants, Ella Paul

Manuscripts

Sometimes

I don't believe in anything

Escape To Tranquility, Ritz Davison

Manuscripts

Photograph of river and trees.

The Body Of Christ, Bob Barrick

Manuscripts

The scent of embalming fluid

from bearing the pall at my grandfather's funeral--

Meditation At The Bell Tower, Wesley Sexton

Manuscripts

This is one of those places that is supposed to be important. It is here so you can have a place to go (not so you can do anything there) but just because it is nice to have somewhere to go. More specifically, this place is a place for two people to go together, a place to spend a delightful springtime afternoon, a place to watch the sunset. In short, this is not a spot for the loner, looking for a quiet reprieve (although today I am that loner, and that is what I am doing); this spot is for …

Yellow, Cassidy Olson

Manuscripts

Magnified photograph by Cassidy Olson.

She's Much More Than Cool, Earl Townsend

Manuscripts

Mussolini's in the parking garage eating Fettuccini Alfredo.

I'm in a museum eating squirrel from Philadelphia.

Sometimes I take a shower with nothing else to do.

Carmelia, Tommy O'Rourke

Manuscripts

Carmelia constantly confused the little hairs on her knuckles for tiny fuses leading to the bottle rocket of her soul. She burnt her fingers bald and even singed some skin into rust blotches with the extra-large matchsticks she used to light her Lucky Strikes. Her fingers were always fiddling with the rosary dangling around her neck, which she constructed in the 7th grade using nothing but speaker wire and cigarette butts, both stolen from her father, like her grey-violet eyes. As she danced, her pupils dilated. The booming music. The record player pushed its needle into to vinyl to make …

4 Tricks To Make Her Orgasm- Askmen, Bob Barrick

Manuscripts

Her shoulder, white like a page.

Her sex; her words.