by Matthew Johnson | May 9, 2026 | Poetry
Phone Calls and Skate Lessons by Lila J. Cutter Illustration by Abby Baker Phone Calls and Skate Lessons T. named what she wanted after another heart-shiver “everything” stumble forward like figure skates on July grass the giving’s gone dry ...
by Matthew Johnson | May 9, 2026 | Poetry
Jake the Alligator Man by Ryan Topper Jake the Alligator Man It might be a distant ancestor of man,a ‘missing link’ that jumped offthe evolutionary ladder—Weekly World News Man’s head, gator’s body fished from a Florida swamp,Sphinx-pose mummy sludging everglade...
by Matthew Johnson | Jan 10, 2026 | Poetry
Whalefall by Pepper Trail Whalefall From the higher darkness above (for there is no darkness but darkness the higher and the lower and then here, the soft silt, the end) it stirs the world long before its coming slow soundless thunderous in its arrival invisible...
by Matthew Johnson | Nov 6, 2025 | Essay
Written in Thorns by Lila J. Cutter Written in Thorns Then round about that place there grew a hedge of thorns thicker every year… —”Sleeping Beauty,” The Brothers Grimm In 1992, architect Michael Brill...
by Matthew Johnson | Jul 10, 2025 | Memoir
Dreams of a Portland Watershed by Sam Olson Dreams of a Portland Watershed Through gullies we made a wilderness of, Arnold Creek raised us with its thickets. There were gutted, flipped-over cars. Mildew-coated homes abandoned mid-build. Fern-roofed sheds spilling...