Purdue's Undergraduate Literary Journal
By Sean Murley Sometimes the fast-forward button is stuck on the VCR.The clouds move so quickly these days. My lifemoves so quickly these days. Even now, in the third longest hour of my life, the second hand moves slightly too fast,and I don’t know how it’s nighttime at 5:30. I start to look out the Read More …
By Toyosi Begbaaji Because when you were fifteen, you hotwired and stole your dad’s car just so you could brag about it at school the next day. Because at sixteen, you came to English class each day, proud that you hadn’t finished the Great Gatsby reading, and you never would. Because on graduation day, you Read More …
By Sarah Komanapalli In my apartment I feel small. And even in that smallnessI am intrusive.The light from the window Leans flat against the wall Forming grey rectangles Around the black door frame I am staring at a composition. A wide purple sky behind Sentinel orange electric lights. White blinds as long stripes And a Read More …
By Sean Murley Tell me a bit about yourself. We all have angel wings, hidden under wool coats. What is one word that best describes you? Thousands of normal people lose their voice daily. Which means they can’t call for Superman ice cream. How would your friends describe your work ability? They would speak Read More …
By Toyosi Begbaaji Our mother waded through, rags floating up right at her waist like Victorian gowns. She held us up above the water, lips moving around silent prayers, around silent pleading. Not mah babies. You ain’t gettin’ mah babies. Our mother shiveredas she crossed that Great Mississippi, boatin sight, arms trembling. She cast a Read More …
By Helen Coats I dizzy my way through infinite deaths — crashing daily into kitchen sinks, lintskinned under godlikethumbs, or nabbed by a soccer mom’s doll-sized electric chair on a whitewashed porch, neon violet humming griddle, sizzle, then reborn — Mother Time harkens to my battle whine, flung back&back&back, where I am named impertinentby Aesop & cholera bomb Read More …
By Hollis Druhet Justice contracts, ebbs and recedes in wakeof a tar-feathered crow. grease slicked, its attemptsto take flight are hampered as if by brokenwingtip – its violent talons are cut on sandstoneand fireclay. descendant of Beelzebubwith abalone sight, malignant and desiring…its shrill speech communicates lustful claimsfor grisly pounds of flesh and liver to peck at.
By Hollis Druhet The warmth loosely contained within freshly steeped black tea Mediated by the addition of honey and milk,leads one to contemplate a little getaway, sayAn empty beach, shaded by the propitious sunset.Genial star, touched at midriff by the equivocal ocean,this evening gives birth to a carnelian hue – An amused, passionate color : fluent Read More …
By Callie Lehman Wrapped in dimpled flesh, Oozing treacly goodness. Stains my fingernails. Pesky strings, leave me! Ripening sloshes the nose. Ring…ring…ring…Yellow? Wafts honeyed syrup, Mocking Pablo Picasso. Sunset in my palm. Fall’s luminescence. Speckled with impurities. Crunchy masticate. Seven-dollar day. Decades of exploitation. I ingest my grief.
By Sarah Culp In vain, I endeavored to make my bed in the stale chambers of your heart, But they could not hold me; you know I am claustrophobic.Cagey, wary, I shrink from the protection of four blank wallsAnd a sturdy roof, for fear that they will bind me in paralysis, That a numbness will Read More …