Victoria by Adiba Jaigirdar
Victoria, forgive yourself You spent years in the darkness windows closed, doors locked shut. Alone, you bled as each mistake seared your skin for eternity. We never learnt to say ‘No, Stop.’…
Issue
Issue #2
Everything we printed in Issue #2 of Dual Coast Magazine: 114 pieces of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art and more, free to read online in print order.
See the contents of Issue #2 with page numbers, or read the original printed issue there as a PDF.
Paper Boats by Adiba Jaigirdar
Spent my childhood with the paper boats in the rain and returned home soaked to my bare bones, chilled to my fragile core. Some days I shouted ‘achoo’ into the empty halls…
Epidemic by Adiba Jaigirdar
You gave me mouth-to-mouth poison: diffused slow and sweet through each bone nestled in joints a black heart of black cobwebs, every disease in this bloody world spread head to toe, my…
Enjoying Me by E Campbell
I have been weepy lately, like the willow hanging over the house not at tissue commercials or dramas necessarily but yes, those too I have been tearing up, something overcomes me a…
Float Like a Butterfly by E Campbell
cat stands at the sliding door brown moths and gnats taunt him a round light above, casts a halo guards his body; stage lit opponents fly down in sputters darting left and…
Love Works in Strange Ways by Melissa Davis
Margaret jumped in the car and breathed a sigh of relief. Now her sort-of-mother-in-law would have to deal with the baby for a few days. She and Frankie could finally have some…
FictionLeaving the last line
I grew up in the West Side, a corner of South Bend, IN., where the poor managed to get by. My father spent his mornings driving the back-alleys, rooting through garbage, looking…
Acceptance by Rich Ives
don’t include everything you know don’t include time and the other thieves don’t include the early age of little ones assembling suns include the several dragging sounds of husbandry include the parents…
After the Revolution by Rich Ives
I’ve declared newspapers I’ve declared doorsteps I’ve brought my enemies a chamber pot covered with letters written in organic straw I carried a little reasoning along for rescue work and seasoned the…
Afterword by Rich Ives
1. This particular accident allows the place where a bird was joined and the sound a footprint makes retreating–– shadows folded neatly against the execution wall. 2. I drank the gallon of…
Resolutions by Troy Farah
When I woke up, it was 12:32 AM January 1st Year Whatever. Coming home from work a few hours prior, I took a nap and when I awoke, the New Year had…
O Fathers, Be a Compass to Your Sons by Galen R. Faison
Ernest Hemingway is attributed to saying: “To be a successful father…there’s one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don’t look at it for the first two years.” I’m certain that Hemingway…
Never Was by Dixon Hearne
I’m serving kibble and greens to stick people who “do lunch” here to be seen. They hide behind designer sunglasses to make absolutely sure they’re noticed by paparazzi and tacky fans that…
Neither Are Good by Jude Conlee
“We’re trouble, all right,” says the Chaos-Man as he chips at the door with implements “And I guess that makes us help,” his Lawful equivalent puts in while watching and doing nothing.
Sans-all by Jude Conlee
If there’s a universe with a copy of me wandering it and calling an unfamiliar name and looking up to a sky only faintly blue and lacking its response, I don’t want…
Things that Catch by Jude Conlee
There are a good many things that don’t last forever, and there are a good many things I don’t want to keep, and how red is the anguish of looking outside, how…
Pearl Thief by Heather M. Browne
She was a careful study. Learning the currents, the resting spots of the sea. Where to hunt the lustrous pearl, hiding under wave and wind. Safely asleep within its barnacled bed. She…
Sunflowers by Heather M. Browne
Sunflowers singed their holy heads, focused solely on celestial sun, forgetting their need to drink, to wash clean their faces dusty dirt, cool their burning heat, and draw deeply into parched roots.…
Pieces by Heather M. Browne
She lost her peace by piece her voice - her fingered touch. A longing growing deep. Blessed in dreams to find her, for a time. But hurried life was distracting and dreams…
Scent of Orange by Heather M. Browne
Today I took but just one breath And imagined I breathed in you That slight scent of jasmine, orange I paused to listen to my fingers, bones Drinking in you To see…