THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA
by Jake Heller
Image by Eleanor-Leonne Bennett

The Strait of Juan de Fuca is
95 miles long and connects both
the Pacific Strait and the Georgia Strait
to the Pacific Ocean and
we’re lying together in bed.
You are asleep and your hair
is spread out like a Makah
whaling expedition. You are so
beautiful that I cannot stop to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FIXED
by Matthew Fasullo
[audio:http://www.hootreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/fixed.mp3|titles=fixed]

Molly and I met under less than ideal circumstances. It was June of the summer
the city sweat dust. She helped me with my (I still don’t think it was a) problem.
Maybe she didn’t mean to.

One night we climbed the high school roof. We smoked cigarette after cigarette
and she listened until I felt hollow. Then, she pointed out Polaris and told me how
sailors used to navigate by its light. I kissed her once on the mouth, swallowed the
burnt taste of her tongue and then never saw her again.

I stopped getting high after that. But I suppose replacing lines with the bra straps
of anything I could get a hold of is—you know.

“Diapers. Can you pick up diapers. Are you even listening?” My Wife says.
I look across the couch, frowning.

“Of course,” I nod.

 

 

SOMETHING ELSE
by Michael Gatlin
Image by Christina Escamilla
[audio:http://www.hootreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/data-2012-6-20-12-20-32.mp3|titles=SomethingElse]

all of the dandelion’s seeds
rush towards bulb
by the child’s accurate
suck into place
take back
wish

 

 

 

 

MINIATURES
by Miranda Steffens
Image by Eleanor-Leonne Bennett
[audio:http://www.hootreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/mini-final.mp3|titles=miniatures]

It’s how we tell stories. The same stories over and over.
Mostly the same way but slightly different, like the one of
the convertible, and the man on the motorcycle giving my
mother a thumbs up in November not long after the divorce.

 

 

 

 

 

INSIDE ME LIVES A LITTLE GIRL
by Alisha Kaplan
Image by Carabella Sands
[audio:http://www.hootreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Inside-Me-Lives-a-Little-Girl.mp3|titles=Inside Me Lives a Little Girl]

Grandma prayed I would be a girl. Mom didn’t dress me in bows or frills.
I wore my brothers’ hand-me-downs: ripped jeans and Nirvana T-shirts.
They sat on me to make me tough. They were proud when I scratched a
boy, made him bleed and got suspended. The family joke: I didn’t speak
until a few years ago. We were worried about you, Dad said. You used to
sit for hours staring at nothing, doing nothing. Today I hate bows and
don’t own a single piece of pink clothing. Today there lives inside me a
little girl, her fists clenched.

 

 

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Jake Heller is a young poet and freelance writer from the Pacific Northwest. He is currently at work on a collection of poetry loosely based on the area.

Mathew Fasullo writes stories about the ocean from a blanket fort in Edmonton, Canada. You can read them on the interwebs at www.theglasstypewriter.tumblr.com

Michael Gatlin owns a bar on The Lower East Side of Manhattan; Verlaine. He has just finished his second novel, Deviant, and his first son, Ovid, was just born.

Miranda Steffens‘ work has appeared in Upstairs at Duroc, Cellar Door, Apple Valley Review and Ginger Piglet. She’s lived in Paris, New York and now Chicago where she’s working on her MFA in Writing at the School of the Art Institute.

Alisha Kaplan’s work has appeared in Lilith Magazine and The Mansfield Revue. A native of Toronto, she currently lives in Brooklyn and works at Chartwell Booksellers, a rare books store specializing in Winston Churchill.

 

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