ISSUE 61 | FEB 2016

SENSE AND SENSATION

Photograph by Tom Dyne

the French accent is a bonus - like its harder cousins, temporary relief for a permanent problem - Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or ASMR, is the name for a nebulous somatic response set off by specific interpersonal triggers - he scratches a burlap sack next to two potatoes - the peace that follows the best sex is a truce with life

Mamie Stevenson

Save a Bush, Ride a Cowgirl

nothing sounds like more of a lady-boner killer to me than being a lesbian during the Reagan Administration - I opened a fresh pack of razors and went to town - I managed to have sex with people who either didn’t notice (intoxication helped) or didn’t care - I thought this was a perk to being gay - take a good, hard look in the mirror… while bent over

Steve Mentz

Swimming Lessons

there is no long-term survival plan for humans in the ocean - it’s about pretending to be a fish, not a person - I was after something bluer and messier than the sage of Concord’s idyll - I also thought about the Prince of Denmark - so many Romantic fantasies imagine mortality as union with water

Sam Stoeltje

Real is a Feeling

everyone was feeling things - “look,” “sound,” “seem,” and “appear” - largely through the holes - the key instrument of feeling, its mascot - καταλαμβάνειν - capital-R Reality - mine is no callous shell

L. Desharnais

Mary and the Incident

beady black-eyed squints on pinkish palettes - Mary would shrewdly watch little George’s club foot slump along the linoleum floor of Carol’s kitchen - in the doctor’s office you are always on trial - a soft round head replaced the parking meter outside the bank - Mary thought how she would have taken one of their freaks any day

Joshua Schwartz

Approaching Closeness: The Haptic Transformation in Buber’s Dialogical Philosophy

bizarro-hagiography - the solitude of that which is - the self shucks off - unending figure of light - from ecstasy to dialogue - in them and not between them - to be touched

David Lansdowne

Oatmeal is a Vibe !

curiosity about future sensations - Snapchat epic - the jet ski in the dark - burn out the fear response - Mr. Rogers - DJ Khaled - kid rules

Ainsley Morse

Dregs

he sat brown elbows on the pink tabletop - tanned calves rising boldly out of white athletic socks - then the aunt went out of town, leaving Anthony in charge of the dog - and the next thought that came to him along with an erection was: no one would ever know