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The Action Never Stops at Action Park, Michael Mingo
“Damn the safety regulations / and the laws of physics, we build / what shouldn’t, but must, exist:”

The Nature of Johnny’s Medicine, Sloan Thomas
“Our history is compiled of second-hand stories and passed-down gossip. We say Johnny is a shape-shifting mountain lion. He roams around in the dark talking to devils. At sunset, you can smell his medicine stronger than a dead skunk on the road.”

The Girl with Black, Black Hair and The Golden Snake, Jennifer Martelli
“The snake is strung with drops of poison, gold / amber rosary beads, / ending with his golden eye.”

Built To Last, Ryan Dunham
“Four years ago I built a scarecrow. It was a cross-dressing clown. Bertha didn’t get it. My clown e-lude-ed her.”

Death At Burger King, B.A. Varghese
“The Whopper box, like a tomb, / had a picture of one neat green lettuce lying”

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventure, Christopher DeWan
“The insufferable buffoons are still here. If they’d landed anywhere else on Earth, they’d surely have perished by now, fodder for whatever indigenous predator; or perhaps poisoned themselves on local flora; or simply lit themselves on fire from their sheer incompetence, then drowned while trying to put out the flames.”

Cover art: I Am a Skin and a Lotion Soaking Up Myself, Radka Bartůsková