Nightingale & Sparrow

Author: juliette

  • Larissa Reid

    Larissa Reid

    Fiction Contributor

    A former English teacher turned freelance science writer, Larissa has written poetry and prose regularly for the past four years. She is intrigued by visible and invisible boundary lines in landscapesgeological faultlines, myth and reality, edge-lines of land and sea. Based on Scotland’s east coast, she balances her writing life with bringing up her daughters. She is a founder member of the Edinburgh-based writing group, Twisted::Colon.


    @Ammonites_Stars


    Works in Nightingale & Sparrow

    Silhouette

     

  • Maybe at the end all you see is faces

    Maybe at the end all you see is faces

    Archana Sridhar

    The ancestors’ faces flit and flash—
    daguerreotypes in etched silver frames

    Tarnished patterns await crème polish, hem in
    those black-and-white elders

    My head burrows under a white sheet
    and accordion-style cameras flash

    Yellowing prints record
    mourning maternal murmurs by moonlight

    A buttery bulb’s filament guides
    a swaying, frail thread of life

    Hands sandwiched under armpits drag
    bony feet under-turned to a hole in the floor

    A father’s face disembodied straight
    off a plane begs from the ends of the earth

    Iced kerchiefs wrapped in snow
    slap my calves to ward off the chills

    A buzzing headache over yogurt rice
    burns rivers of fever into snowfields

    A mendicant wanders in the cardinal directions,
    hands cupped for alms and blessings

    The face masks shiver in the
    white black red yellow hours

    Archana Sridhar

  • The Unbearable Torture of the Raven at the Arizona Senora Desert Museum

    The Unbearable Torture of the Raven at the Arizona Senora Desert Museum

    K.T. Slattery

    Having seen every national park between Memphis
    and Tuscon,
    I had, myself, grown weary.
    My ten-year-old brain could process no more—
    No more canyons,
    No more movie sets,
    No more forced smiles for pictures.
    A rock for a perch, I sat,
    Hoping the camera bearers
    would not find me.

    ‘Nevermore’ croaked an old voice.
    Then another.
    And another.
    They filed past the raven in front of me—
    Long white socks pulled up to knees
    Anchored by shiny white sneakers
    Golf visors perched on variations of grey and white.
    Then the blue rinse brigade had gone.
    I counted 27 ‘Nevermores’
    And looked at the raven in sympathy.

    Then he opened his beak
    Between you and me,
    I hope Edgar Allan Poe is on
    a slow turning spit in hell
    “Is this what it is like every day?” I asked him.
    Day in. Day out. Every clever clogs that made it
    through eighth grade
    Says the same damn thing.

    Furthermore, I have never, in all my days
    Met a raven that uttered such nonsense.
    Why did it have to be a raven?
    A wolf could howl this dirge more sorrowfully than I—
    A woodpecker is more likely to come a tap tap tapping—
    But in his opium reverie he saw a black bird and
    claimed it was a raven-
    That actually gave a rat’s ass about Lenore.

    I could not fault his logic.
    So I pursed my lips in sympathy.
    The two of us sat in silence—
    Until I saw a tall man approach
    Every nuance of him screamed Clark Griswold
    from National Lampoon’s Vacation.
    He looked thoughtfully at the raven
    Then reverently opened his mouth and uttered
    Those three syllables

    He turned and seeing me, smiled broadly
    “There you are! How about a picture with the raven?
    Stand next to him there and on three…
    Nevermore!”

    K.T. Slattery

  • Cynthia Gallaher

    Cynthia Gallaher

    Poetry Contributor

    Cynthia Gallaher, a Chicago-based poet, is the author of four poetry collections, including Epicurean Ecstasy: More Poems About Food, Drink, Herbs and Spices (The Poetry Box, Portland, 2019), and three chapbooks, including Drenched (Main Street Rag, Charlotte, N.C., 2018). The Chicago Public Library lists her among its “Top Ten Requested Chicago Poets”.


    @swimmerpoet | Facebook


    Works in Nightingale & Sparrow

    Night Insect Roll Call

     

  • Dorian J. Sinnott

    Dorian J. Sinnott

    Fiction Contributor

    Dorian J. Sinnott is a graduate of Emerson College’s Writing, Literature, and Publishing program, currently living in historic Kingston, NY with his two cats. When he’s not writing, he enjoys English horseback riding, playing violin, and traveling to comic cons up and down the east coast. He is the social media editor for Coffin Bell Journal.


    @doriansinnott


    Works in Nightingale & Sparrow

    The Post

  • Sick Doctor

    Sick Doctor

    Shannon Elizabeth Gardner

    Shannon Elizabeth Gardner

  • Mitchell G. Roshannon

    Mitchell G. Roshannon

    Creative nonfiction Contributor

    Mitchell G. Roshannon is a recently graduated student from Susquehanna University with a degree in Creative Writing and English Literature. He lives in Bloomsburg Pennsylvania where he works a variety of day jobs that inspire his writing. He has previously been published in Inter Magazine, The Sanctuary Magazine, and Honey & Lime Lit.


    @m_g_roshannon


    Works in Nightingale & Sparrow

    Dangers of the Trade

     

  • Steve Deutsch

    Steve Deutsch

    Poetry Contributor

    Steve Deutsch lives in State College, PA. His recent publications have or will appear in Evening Street, Better Than Starbucks, SanAntonio Review, Softblow, Mojave River Review, The Broadkill Review, Linden Avenue Literary Journal, Panoply, Algebra of Owls, The Blue Nib, Thimble Magazine, The Muddy River Poetry Review, Ghost City Review, Borfski Press, Streetlight Press, Gravel, Literary Heist, Nixes Mate Review, Third Wednesday, Misfit Magazine, Word Fountain, Eclectica Magazine, The Drabble, New Verse News and The Ekphrastic Review. He was nominated for Pushcart Prizes in 2017 and 2018. His Chapbook, Perhaps You Can, was published in 2019 by Kelsay Press.


    Works in Nightingale & Sparrow

    Double, Double

     

  • Christina Ciufo

    Christina Ciufo

    Poetry Contributor

    Christina Ciufo is a passionate writer in poetry, short stories, flash fictions, fables, and completing her first novel. At a very young age, she always had a passion for writing stories and poems, specifically in fairytales, folklore, supernatural, and horror. She truly enjoys writing about folklore, the supernatural, and horror in various writing genres because she believes by telling stories about witches, vampires, ghosts, werewolves, demons, and other supernatural forces, they evoke a haunting and terrifying imagination that brings joy and fright.


    @ChristinaCiufo


    Works in Nightingale & Sparrow

    Decrypted Glasgow Churchyard

     

  • Anca Vlasopolos

    Anca Vlasopolos

    Poetry Contributor

    Anca Vlasopolos published the award-winning novel The New Bedford Samurai; the award-winning memoir No Return Address: A Memoir of Displacement; four collections of poems, Often Fanged Light (Adelaide Books, 2019), Cartographies of Scale (and Wing) (2015); Walking Toward Solstice (2012); and Penguins in a Warming World (2007); three poetry chapbooks, a detective novel, Missing Members, and nearly three hundred poems and short stories in literary journals.


    Works in Nightingale & Sparrow

    Gaga