Asleep

fiction by Aaron Abel

The day Ethan died was the first day it snowed.  None of us really knew how to feel or what to say.  To be honest, I didn’t really know him that well. I stared outside my bedroom window, standing close to it and leaning my forehead against the frozen glass.  The aura of fluorescent streetlight illuminated the snow, making it look more blue than white as tiny flakes rapidly fell. It was 10:45. I had just gotten off the phone with Jon; he was one of the first to find out. He was eavesdropping on his mom while she was on the phone with someone else’s mom. Jon said Ethan drank half of a bottle of wine and took a handful of whatever he could find in his parents’ bathroom. Then he lay in bed and that was the end. He fell asleep and never woke up.

8:30

poetry by Alex Guarco

I ask him what he thinks Hell is,

if he’s ever thought about it.  He says,

an eternity with your mother.

laughing, he sinks into the couch,

sips from his glass, Jameson, Coke

thumb-clicking his way through our evening,

sinking, sipping low until his eyes follow suit

as predicted.

---

Alex Guarco is a sophomore creative writing major at Susquehanna University. He's president of SU Slam Poetry and a member of the Ultimate Frisbee and Club Volleyball teams.  Alex has appeared in Outrageous Fortune, Variance, Tomfoolery Review, and Essay.

Coming next week: fiction by Aaron Abel

Fever Dreams Pt. 2

by Kim Stoll

You woke at 2:46,

kicked the sheets from

your sweat-glossed legs,

to tell me about a dream

where a fish floats belly-up,

reborn under thin sheets of ice.

You were that fish.

Moved so painfully slow,

pressed your skeleton against

your flesh and could not escape.

Then you were snagged

and yanked to the surface,

gutted and scraped of

all your scales on

a mossy table.

Your eyes rolled between

the floorboard and back

into the lake

where the other fish

pecked away at them.

---

Kim Stoll is a junior creative writing major with a minor in film studies. Her poetry has previously been published in RiverCraft and her chapbook, Through a Pinhole.

Coming next week: poetry by Alex Gaurco

The Susquehanna Review is now online

The Susquehanna Review has gone digital!  Editors Dana Diehl and Melissa Goodrich, with lots of help from graphic designer Kathy Sheehan, have complemented the print version of Susquehanna University's national undergraduate literary magazine with a full online version of the magazine.