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Issue 38

March 2023


Lest You Be Swept Away

by Lauren Ring

“Never look at a flame for so long that it becomes beautiful.” I was taught that mantra as a child in school, and again as a cadet in the fire academy, but I heard it from my father first. […]

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The Heart Beats Green and Grey

by Steve Toase

When my Dad went missing I returned to Slakeby. The letter had been written in scrawl, no way to recognize who had contacted me, but I had no reason to doubt its authenticity. […]

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Exquisite Corpses

by L.M. Guay

Mariah came late to the woods, wobbling into the weak firelight on her newest legs. Bared by her jean shorts, each long tan thigh was ringed with a fine, crimped seam like an empanada. My parents always wanted me to be a model, she’d told me at orientation... […]

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One Eye Opened in That Other Place

by Christi Nogle

They were tied up together from the start: Dottie and that other place. That other place, that other eye. Charles didn’t like to think of it as a third eye, though that’s what it was. It wasn’t in his forehead, wasn’t in the center of his face at all. […]

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Thanks to our patrons for supporting this issue: Kelly, Bear Weiter, Jessica Guptill, Maria Haskins, Elise Tobler, Julie Ireland, Craig Church, Lowry Poletti, Julie Stevens, Kevin Casin, Michelle Muenzler, Molly Tanzer, Thomas Ha, Lorna D Keach, John Wm. Thompson, Denman Netherland

Issue 38

March 2023

3LBE 38

Front & Back cover art by Rew X